Britain's best and worst-performing fertility clinics have been revealed in a league table published by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority today.
The HFEA list, published following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, rates the performance of the UK's 78 fertility clinics based on inspections, patient complaints and reported incidents between April 2005 and March 2006.
The industry regulator said the league table was not a "naming and shaming" exercise for clinics, but was designed to provide an overview of the UK's fertility sector.
John Paul Mayturn, an HFEA spokesman, said it provided a snapshot of how clinics were complying with the law as well as what kind of patient care they provided.
Clinics were assessed in 32 key categories including risk management, the safety of equipment and procedures, staff competence, the quality of patient information and arrangements for donor selection.
They were given scores of -3 for breaching a piece of legislation, -2 for a breach of the HFEA code of practice and -1 for other forms of poor practice. The perfect score for a clinic is 0.
The report reveals that 140 incidents were reported to the regulator during the 12 months, of which 91 were deemed to have serious consequences for the patient, embryo or staff safety, while 38 were regarded as less serious.
Nearly half the clinics did not meet the required standards for giving information to patients, while patients too often did not have adequate access to counselling.
A quarter of the poor performance identified by inspectors took place in six clinics, which had compliance scores of -15 or lower. Two clinics had compliance scores of around -30.
The six lowest-rated clinics were the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London (-29), the Reproductive Genetics Institute, which no longer has an HFEA licence and is also in London (-34), Brentwood Fertility (-17), the London Women's Clinic (-22), the Winterbourne Hospital in Dorset (-19) and the Reproductive Medicine Unit at University College Hospital, London (-16).
According to the report, the six clinics demonstrated "the systemic problems caused by poor leadership and control".
The report said key problems included leadership and management, for example "where the person responsible at a centre does not devote sufficient time to the management of the centre to ensure effective scrutiny".
Other issues surrounded protocols, laboratory procedures and staff competence, qualifications and training.
Only five of the 78 clinics listed scored 0. They were the Care Fertility Centre in Nottingham, the ISIS Fertility Centre in Colchester, St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, the Christie Hospital NHS Trust in Manchester and the Willow Suite at the Thames Valley Nuffield Hospital.
The clinic with the lowest score in the HFEA tables - the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre - is also the most successful clinic in the UK in terms of the number of live births, a key figure for many people looking at assisted reproduction.
However, Mr Mayturn said there was "much more to clinics than just a success rate".
"The big issues for patients are things such as the quality of patient information and counselling services," he said. "It is an emotional, difficult time for people ... you could end up with a child but have a lot of problems getting there. The quality of care at this time is very important."
Around 10,000 babies are born due to IVF each year, with 25% of treatments funded by the NHS.
