Embryologist case exposes flaws

Paul Fielding has been found guilty

By Adam Brimelow BBC Health Correspondent

The Paul Fielding trial has exposed serious shortcomings in several IVF clinics.

It has raised renewed questions about the supervision of staff dealing day in, day out with the responsibilities of helping to create new life.

This case has provided an insight into the way IVF clinics work, and how things can go wrong.

Embryologists around the country will be shocked and saddened by this case

Dr Karen Turner

Every year well over 20,000 patients across the UK have IVF treatment. The overall success rate is just over 20%.

In the late 1990s Paul Fielding worked at two sites - the North Hampshire NHS hospital, and also at the private Hampshire clinic in Basingstoke where he was the sole embryologist.

Until 1998 it was one of the most successful IVF clinics in the country.

Inquiry

But then things started going seriously wrong. In August 2000 an inquiry was ordered when the clinic was unable to trace Lisa Butlin's embryos.

"We couldn't believe it" she said during a BBC interview.

"We felt devastated because obviously I was due to go in the next day."

The audit at the clinic found that eight embryos which should have been transferred to prospective mothers were still in storage. That is when the police were called in.

In all 47 sets of embryos were found to be missing, either at the clinic or the hospital where Paul Fielding worked.

He was charged on eight counts of false accounting, and three of assault.

The prosecution said he failed to transfer embryos, but still claimed the fees in order to pay off his debts.

Shock

Dr Karen Turner, chairwoman of the Association of Clinical Embryologists, and the main expert witness for the prosecution, said: "Embryologists around the country will be shocked and saddened by this case.

"The overwhelming majority of embryologists perform their work to a high standard.

"They do follow guidelines, they do follow their own protocols, and they are acutely aware of the work that they do, and the importance of the work that they do".

Virginia Bolton said embryologists should not work alone

Dr Turner said the case was unusual in that Fielding was working alone, and was paid on a per procedure basis, which is very uncommon in embryology.

Part of Paul Fielding's job was to oversee the storage of embryos for possible future use.

It's a meticulous process, requiring careful attention to detail as the tiny embryos are inserted into narrow tubes and stored in liquid nitrogen.

Records

Paul Fielding's trial heard that his record-keeping was a shambles - and that embryos may have been given to the wrong women.

The case prompted the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to order a national audit of well over 100 clinics.

It revealed inconsistencies at five - including one where three embryos were found lying at the bottom of a storage tank.

Since then the HFEA has tightened the rules on tracing embryos and witnessing procedures in clinics.

A scientific inspector for the HFEA, Dr Virginia Bolton, said: "Having somebody working alongside the individual carrying out the procedures is really very important, and I think less and less it will be tolerated having a single embryologist working on their own in a facility."

But for some patients involved in this case the changes have come too late, and their chances of parenthood have gone forever.