Fertility help for couples following egg donation claims

St Jude's Clinic in Wolverhampton was applying to renew its licence when the alleged incident came to light.

Bosses have disputed the claims and are currently in the process of appealing, with a hearing due to take place in March.

Staffordshire-based Midland Fertility Services is offering transfers to couples concerned their treatment could be cut short by the appeal is lost.

A couple from Bilton are among the former patients at the firm in Tamworth.

Faye and Karl Harris, from Wednesfield, were almost at the top of the waiting list for St Jude's when the contract for NHS funded treatment in their area went to Midland Fertility.

The couple were told they needed fertility treatment to help them become parents.

Karl, a draughtsman, was found to have a tube blockage which significantly reduced their chances of a natural conception.

They transferred to Midland Fertility and began treatment in July 2013.

Their daughter Athena-Jae was born in July 2014. "We are over the moon and we feel so lucky that fate took us to a different clinic than first planned," said Karl. "It's our dream come true and we cannot thank the staff at Midland Fertility enough."

Midland Fertility Services, which is based in Tamworth, says it is accepting transfers of couples.

Dr Gillian Lockwood, medical director of Midland Fertility, said: "We regularly register patients who have received treatment at other fertility clinics and is happy to continue doing this, depending on the patient's current stage of treatment.

"The unit also accept frozen eggs, sperm or embryos from other fertility clinics to enable patients' to continue treatment."

Meanwhile, St Jude's bosses are preparing for their next hearing.

The Wolverhampton clinic, based in Penn Road, can still continue practising until the appeal.

A report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said eggs were collected from a woman on August 20, 2010 - but it is believed consent forms were filled in before she was discharged, one hour 20 minutes after the procedure.

Inspectors were concerned she would still have been under the influence of the anaesthetic.

The report by the HFEA on St Jude's states: "The evidence has led us to accept on the balance of probabilities that it was in fact a practice by this centre to take consent in this way on occasions after sedation had been given but before a patient had been discharged. We cannot assess how often this has happened but we have been persuaded that this was not a one-off occasions and must have happened on more than a single occasion."

And it says evidence given by Jude Adeghe officially holds the IVF licence, was 'not credible or truthful'.

No-one from St Jude's was available to comment.