Police launch embryo inquiry

Up to 40 women are thought to have been affected

Police have launched an investigation into the disappearance of frozen embryos used in fertility treatment.

Administration checks made at the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke and the private Hampshire Clinic, which share facilities, revealed some embryos to be missing from storage.

Detectives spent Friday at the Hampshire Clinic, where an internal investigation has already been launched into how the embryos of women undergoing fertility treatment were lost.

Up to 40 patients at the clinic and hospital are understood to be involved in the scare.

Any question of financial irregularities will..be addressed

North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust statement

Clinic spokeswoman Carole Friend said the police had been called in and would be investigating whether the service complied with the Human Fertilisation and Human Embryology Act.

"Following the recent audit of storage and record-keeping, investigations are continuing with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the police," she said.

She said detectives had been told the results of the clinic's own investigation, but could not confirm if any employees or patients had been formally interviewed by police.

She also refused to confirm that police had been called in over fraud allegations, but said the investigation would cover the clinic's finances.

DNA tests

The Hampshire Clinic had been buying embryology services from the hospital and also had been paying an embryologist, whom Ms Friend declined to name, for other services.

Another embryologist, Paul Fielding, 33, of Whitchurch, Hampshire, has been suspended from work at the North Hampshire Hospital since the scandal came to light.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn has ordered Chief Medical Officer Professor Liam Donaldson to prepare an urgent report on the missing embryos.

Dozens of women are understood to have called a confidential helpline, fearing that their babies are not biologically theirs, or that their embryos may have been implanted in other women.

Mothers who have given birth since being treated at the two centres will be offered DNA tests to establish that their babies are their own.

A regular audit discovered some embryos were missing

Some patients have been told they must restart their fertility treatment because of errors in records.

Hampshire Police have refused to comment on the investigation, led by Detective Inspector Karen Manners, which is expected to take several months.

In a statement issued earlier this week, NHS bosses said possible "financial irregularities" would be included in North Hampshire Hospital's own investigation.

"As a result of an issue relating to the recording and storage of frozen embryos, the Trust is in the process of undertaking a full investigation which will be completed as soon as possible," said the statement released by North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

"Any question of financial irregularities will also be addressed by this investigation."

It said the trust recognised how distressing the scare had been for patients.