Now that I have safely changed clinics and have had a couple of rounds with the new clinic I thought it would be a good idea to move the eggs that I have already frozen at my “old” clinic to my “new” clinic. A few reasons for this decision. 1) I think it’s probably best to have them all in one place so I don’t loose track of them (not that there is much chance of that happening! 2) having experienced so many problems with “old” clinic, I don’t really trust them to keep my most prized possessions and the thing I have worked most hard for in this world (my frozen eggs) safe. This being the case I decided I should get all my eggs safely in one place and do this as soon as possible.
I spoke to “new” clinic who were very helpful and told me the process I needed to follow. Pretty straight forward (albeit not cheap). Pay “new” clinic £150 admin fee, “old” clinic £200 admin fee, transportation company £150 fee, fill out a handful of different bits of paper work and that starts the process.
It wasn’t quite as easy as that as “old” clinic wanted to use their own transportation company who were charging more than the “going rate” and it was quite a struggle to get them to use the transportation company i had chosen. The transportation company I chose came recommended from “new” clinic and interestingly they told me they had had many problems with “old” clinic with previous clients as “old” clinic had someone working for them who moonlights as a transportation company!!!! Doesn’t surprise me at all to be honest but all I care about is getting my eggs safely to their new home with “new” clinic.
Its one week on from having paid the various fees and filled out the various forms and the move still hasn’t taken place. I have allowed myself just a few milliseconds to think about a scenario that during transportation something happens…. a car crash or something and my eggs….. no…. no…. I can’t even go there, that would just be too cruel and unimaginable, so I am going to stay positive until the move is complete (I am told this week).
One thing that the move has uncovered however, is some more “old” clinic deception!!! I don’t say that lightly as I am not one to want to throw blame around, but in this case I think what I uncovered wasn’t a case of “human error” but more “intentional error” to benefit an organization whose only objective or care seems to be to make money from emotionally vulnerable people. Patient care and wellbeing don’t seem to be words that exist in the vocabulary of my “old” clinic! Let me explain.
When paying for a round of egg freezing there are a number of different fees… fees for blood tests, fees for anesthetic, fees for scans, fees for medication etc. one of the fees is called “HEFA fees”. This is an £80 fee that the clinic collects on day 2 of your period and regardless of if a round is successful or not they submit a form and pay this fee to HEFA (the governing body of Ivf in the uk). This is what I had thought and been told by “old clinic”. I was told that it was a formality and there was nothing they could do about this. Now keep in mind these people are supposed to be “experts” in what they do. They do this day in and day out. You would THINK they would know the correct process to follow, unless of course they were being deliberately deceptive…. right???
So for the 20 rounds I had done at “old” clinic I’d paid this £80 fee each time and not thought much about it, it was just more money adding to the total of this extremely expensive journey.
Fast forward to a few months ago when I started treatment at my “new” clinic and they weren’t charging me this HEFA fee, they did make me fill out the paperwork for HEFA but no fee. I raised it as a question to “new” clinic but was told no fee was required, I questioned this a few times but the answer was still the same.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and trying to “move my eggs” and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to have to “double pay” this HEFA fee in the future if and when I decided to use my eggs that had been frozen at “old” clinic. I enquired about this with “new” clinic who called HEFA on my behalf and confirmed that they do not charge this fee unless the eggs are actually thawed and used, they also confirmed that the had received all my paperwork from my “old” clinic but none of the fees at all (so none of the £80 x 20 rounds!) “new” clinic told me that “old” clinic owed me a refund!
I don’t know why I was surprised at all to be honest, this was exactly the kind of thing I expected from “old” clinic, I could just see a “fight” having to take place in order to get this money back and I was tired and worn down from this whole process, but also knew that this is exactly what “old” clinic wanted. They wanted the wool to be pulled over the eyes of emotionally charged people who would never know to question this fee, the relied on patients to be “spent” from the process and not have the energy to fight for what was rightfully theirs! Well they picked the wrong person this time!
Out of principle I sent an email to the clinic saying I had spoken to HEFA and that both they and “new” clinic informed me that i was owed a refund. I honestly didn’t expect to hear anything positive back.
About four days later I got a reply from the head nurse at “old” clinic, a lady who had been involved in my treatment and to be honest had been one of the main culprits who made me feel like a business transaction during the process not a patient. The email stated that this was the first time they had heard of this (that’s a worry if they are the experts) and that of course they would look into it and refund me and all patients who had been wrongfully charged if infact these £80 fees had not been paid to HEFA (how they could NOT know that they hadn’t paid this fee blows my mind, but anyway). They said they would get back to me once they had spoke to HEFA to confirm this.
The next day I got an email from them apologizing for wrongly charging me and stating they would refund me. I knew at this time that this had been way too easy but I told myself not to be so cynical and just take the refund and acknowledge it as a good win.
I asked for them to confirm the total amount being refunded prior to putting it back on my credit card (apparently too difficult for them to do a bank transfer to my UK bank account)!! They emailed over the breakdown of the refund and it was only half what I was expecting, I questioned this and they showed me that they had decided not to refund the occasions where I purchased a “package round” as it was all inclusive!!!!!!! Can you believe the audacity of this! Not only have the deceived me and likely many other patients for years, or that this had been for me over a three year period (so technically they owe me interest) but now they are saying that the “package rounds” don’t count!!!!
I have decided not reply at the moment. I want to get my eggs safely to their new home but once they are there I am going to fight this. Out of principle honestly I’d like to take them to court and name and shame them and if it gets to that point I think I might but I just can’t believe that this clinic has been allowed to get away with a) treating people the way they have and b) that they have got away with it for so long. They prey on emotionally vulnerable people who trust in the experts and to treat them fairly and as a paying patient. This level of service is morally unacceptable!
I don’t know if this is a legal thing or a HEFA thing but once I hit my 20 and my eggs are safely moved I am going to escalate the unethical way this clinic has been doing business if not to help me as I think for me it is too late, but then to protect others from having a similar experience and being deceived in this way!