Monash IVF admits to mistake after wrong embryo implanted
Fertility treatment company Monash IVF has admitted to a second IVF mistake, again putting the wrong embryo into a patient.
The latest incident happened on June 5 at the company's Clayton clinic in Melbourne's southeast.
'A patient's own embryo was incorrectly transferred to that patient, contrary to the treatment plan which designated the transfer of an embryo of the patient's partner,' Monash IVF said in a statement to the ASX on Tuesday.
'Monash IVF is conducting an internal investigation into the incident.
'Monash IVF has extended its sincere apologies to the affected couple, and we continue to support them,' the statement reads.
In 2023, Monash IVF staff in Brisbane mistakenly implanted the wrong embryo into another woman; the recipient of the embryo gave birth to the child.
Monash IVF reported this incident to authorities and news of the error broke in April this year.
Victorian barrister Fiona McLeod is running an independent review into the Brisbane incident. Ms McLeod's investigation is being widened, Tuesday's announcement says.
'(Monash IVF) has also extended the scope of the independent review … noting that the different incidents occurred some years apart. Monash IVF will provide an update on the findings of the expanded review in due course,' the statement reads.
The company said checks and balances were also being improved 'commencing immediately'.
'Monash IVF will implement interim additional verification processes and patient confirmation safeguards over and above normal practice and electronic witness systems, to ensure patients and clinicians have every confidence in its process,' the statement read.
'Whilst industry leading electronic witness systems have and are being rolled out across Monash IVF, there remains instances and circumstances whereby manual witnessing is required.'
Monash IVF alerted the regulators to the incident, the company said.
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A second embryo blunder from a major private fertility clinic has raised fresh fears about system flaws. Staff at a Monash IVF laboratory in Melbourne on Thursday transferred the wrong embryo to a woman, giving her one of her own rather than one from her partner, as they had requested. The pair is believed to be in a same-sex relationship. The company, which is based in Melbourne but has clinics around Australia, apologised to the couple and launched an internal investigation. But the Victorian Health Regulator has swooped in with its own probe of Monash IVF and how the error occurred at its Clayton site. State Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the mistake was "completely unacceptable" and the company must provide answers. "This will be quite devastating for the couple at the heart of this," she told reporters on Tuesday. "We all know that the IVF journey can be a very long, torturous one. It can be very expensive as well." 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Alex Polyakov, a fertility specialist at Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital, said the latest stuff-up was also likely because of human error. He said the mistake in Melbourne was easier to make than the one in Brisbane but equally serious. "You have the couple's names on every embryo," the Genea Fertility Melbourne medical director told AAP. "It's not just the patient or the egg provider, it's also their partner. "I could see how this would happen." About one in 18 babies is born via IVF in Australia. Associate Professor Polyakov said the two transfer errors were the first he was aware of in Australia since the IVF industry began operating 40 years ago, although there have been high-profile cases in the US and Israel. He called for more vigilance and extra layers of protection but conceded no system could be made foolproof from a "black swan event". Shine Lawyers medical law Victorian practice lead Daniel Opare said alarm bells should be ringing across the industry. Known errors disclosed by Monash IVF raise questions about potential issues at other clinics that do not have the same reporting obligations, the medical negligence expert argued. He said Monash IVF could be exposed to lawsuits for failing in its duty of care to the patient, on top of breach of contract if the couple signed an agreement setting out which embryo was due to be transferred. The two separate errors disclosed by Monash IVF were "up there in terms of severity" compared to other previously known industry errors, he said, including embryos being damaged after trays were dropped in laboratories. "It's inexcusable," Mr Opare told AAP. Pink Elephants support group founder Samantha Payne was concerned about the impact on other couples undergoing IVF and called for a wider discussion about how clinics are run. "You'd be terrified if you were going through a round of IVF now," she said. 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Alex Polyakov, a fertility specialist at Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital, said the latest stuff-up was also likely because of human error. He said the mistake in Melbourne was easier to make than the one in Brisbane but equally serious. "You have the couple's names on every embryo," the Genea Fertility Melbourne medical director told AAP. "It's not just the patient or the egg provider, it's also their partner. "I could see how this would happen." About one in 18 babies is born via IVF in Australia. Associate Professor Polyakov said the two transfer errors were the first he was aware of in Australia since the IVF industry began operating 40 years ago, although there have been high-profile cases in the US and Israel. He called for more vigilance and extra layers of protection but conceded no system could be made foolproof from a "black swan event". Shine Lawyers medical law Victorian practice lead Daniel Opare said alarm bells should be ringing across the industry. Known errors disclosed by Monash IVF raise questions about potential issues at other clinics that do not have the same reporting obligations, the medical negligence expert argued. He said Monash IVF could be exposed to lawsuits for failing in its duty of care to the patient, on top of breach of contract if the couple signed an agreement setting out which embryo was due to be transferred. The two separate errors disclosed by Monash IVF were "up there in terms of severity" compared to other previously known industry errors, he said, including embryos being damaged after trays were dropped in laboratories. "It's inexcusable," Mr Opare told AAP. Pink Elephants support group founder Samantha Payne was concerned about the impact on other couples undergoing IVF and called for a wider discussion about how clinics are run. "You'd be terrified if you were going through a round of IVF now," she said. A second embryo blunder from a major private fertility clinic has raised fresh fears about system flaws. Staff at a Monash IVF laboratory in Melbourne on Thursday transferred the wrong embryo to a woman, giving her one of her own rather than one from her partner, as they had requested. The pair is believed to be in a same-sex relationship. The company, which is based in Melbourne but has clinics around Australia, apologised to the couple and launched an internal investigation. But the Victorian Health Regulator has swooped in with its own probe of Monash IVF and how the error occurred at its Clayton site. State Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the mistake was "completely unacceptable" and the company must provide answers. "This will be quite devastating for the couple at the heart of this," she told reporters on Tuesday. "We all know that the IVF journey can be a very long, torturous one. It can be very expensive as well." 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Alex Polyakov, a fertility specialist at Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital, said the latest stuff-up was also likely because of human error. He said the mistake in Melbourne was easier to make than the one in Brisbane but equally serious. "You have the couple's names on every embryo," the Genea Fertility Melbourne medical director told AAP. "It's not just the patient or the egg provider, it's also their partner. "I could see how this would happen." About one in 18 babies is born via IVF in Australia. Associate Professor Polyakov said the two transfer errors were the first he was aware of in Australia since the IVF industry began operating 40 years ago, although there have been high-profile cases in the US and Israel. He called for more vigilance and extra layers of protection but conceded no system could be made foolproof from a "black swan event". Shine Lawyers medical law Victorian practice lead Daniel Opare said alarm bells should be ringing across the industry. Known errors disclosed by Monash IVF raise questions about potential issues at other clinics that do not have the same reporting obligations, the medical negligence expert argued. He said Monash IVF could be exposed to lawsuits for failing in its duty of care to the patient, on top of breach of contract if the couple signed an agreement setting out which embryo was due to be transferred. The two separate errors disclosed by Monash IVF were "up there in terms of severity" compared to other previously known industry errors, he said, including embryos being damaged after trays were dropped in laboratories. "It's inexcusable," Mr Opare told AAP. Pink Elephants support group founder Samantha Payne was concerned about the impact on other couples undergoing IVF and called for a wider discussion about how clinics are run. "You'd be terrified if you were going through a round of IVF now," she said. 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