A fertility clinic in London has had its licence to operate suspended because of “significant concerns” about the unit, the regulator has said.
The Homerton Fertility Centre has been ordered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to halt any new procedures while investigations continue.
The clinic in east London said there had been three separate incidents highlighting errors in some freezing processes. This resulted in the “tragic loss of a small number of embryos” that either did not survive or became “undetectable”, which means an embryo stored in frozen liquid solution in a container cannot be found during subsequent thawing.
The clinic has informed the patients affected and apologised for any distress caused.
Homerton Healthcare NHS foundation trust said it began an investigation in late 2023 and immediately made regulators fully aware of it. The HFEA is now conducting its own investigation alongside the trust.
The clinic is permitted to continue treatment cycles that have already begun, the BBC reported.
In a statement, the clinic said that while the investigators had not been able to find any direct cause of the errors, it had made changes in the unit to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
All staff now work in pairs to ensure all clinical activities are checked by two healthcare professionals, competencies of staff within the unit have been rechecked, and security at the unit has been increased.
The Homerton Fertility Centre’s chief executive, Louise Ashley, said the clinic was writing to all its fertility patients, “apologising for the errors and for the concern this may have caused even if their eggs, embryos or sperm are unaffected. We will continue to keep them informed.
“Current patients may continue to be treated at the unit despite the licence suspension by the HFEA, and our very dedicated staff are keen to support patients in whatever way they can.”
The Metropolitan police said officers attended the clinic on Friday after concerns were raised by the Homerton healthcare NHS foundation trust. The force said: “There is no police investigation at this time.”
Peter Thompson, chief executive of the HFEA, said it had “suspended Homerton Fertility Centre’s licence to operate with immediate effect, due to significant concerns about the clinic … We appreciate this may cause concern to patients who are undergoing treatment at the clinic, or have eggs, sperm and/or embryos stored there.
“We do not want to disrupt patients’ treatment if they have already started medication as part of a treatment cycle, so we have made provisions to allow them to complete their treatment if they wish to do so.”
Last month, scores of women were affected by the use of a faulty freezing solution at fertility clinics in London and Sheffield.
The HFEA said the issue was limited to Guy’s and St Thomas’ assisted conception unit in London and Jessop Fertility in Sheffield, and that frozen eggs and embryos were potentially destroyed as a result. The clinics received a batch of faulty freezing solution from CooperSurgical, a US company.
Sheffield teaching hospitals NHS trust, where the clinic is based, said it had identified 29 people who had eggs or embryos frozen in August 2022, when the particular product batch was used.
However, only one of these people had the faulty fluid used to freeze her eggs or embryos, and that person “was contacted at the time and did not require further actions to be taken”.
The statement came after Guy’s and St Thomas’ apologised to 136 women after their eggs and embryos were probably damaged during the freezing process at its NHS-operated clinic.
The hospital contacted the women after discovering that it may have inadvertently used some bottles of the faulty freezing solution in September and October 2022. The clinic said it did not know the liquid was defective at the time.
