S.I. couples accepted

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 3

S.I. couples accepted

Some infertile South Island couples were being accepted for the Auckland test-tube baby programme, said the medical superintendent of Christchurch Women’s Hospital, Mr Hamish McCrostie. Mr McCrostie will attend the Third World Congress on In-Vitro Fertilisation in Helsinki, Finland, next month to get a better idea of the likely costs involved in setting up a Christchurch programme. He emphasised that only “appropriate” referrals were made to the research programme at National Women’s Hospital.

Christchurch hospital staff probably had the expertise to provide a matching service but the longterm developing costs were the main concern of the Canterbury Hospital Board working party, set up to investigate the idea. Another reason for attending the conference was to discover any overseas advances which might make the process simpler, Mr McCrostie said. He would also visit other hospitals before returning to New Zealand in August. A spokesman for the Christchurch infertility support group, Mrs S.

Armstrong, said she knew of four women who had been accepted for the Auckland programme. However, it accepted only couples where the woman had damaged Fallopian tubes. The head of the Auckland post-graduate school of obstetrics and gynaecology, Professor Dennis Bonham, said the National Women’s Hospital programme had always been seen as providing a national service. Specialists throughout New Zealand had been told of the programme, which had already accepted a small number of South Island couples.