Summary

SAI Israel audited various aspects of Israel's in vitro fertilization (IVF) policy. The audit examined the Ministry of Health's activities. The auditors noted the need to re-asses the public funding policy in Israel as it deviates from that of many other countries in such material aspects as patient’s age, raising concerns that the current policy may lead to treatments with exceedingly low success rates. SAI also found shortage of IVF work procedures at the auditee, lack of follow-up actions on deficiencies and gaps raised in the Ministry of Health's audits, instances of non-reporting of incidents, shortage of embryologists, as well as issues with completeness and reliability of the national database for IVF treatment cycles. The auditors also stressed the importance of careful analysis of implications of increased procedures in the private units as substantial rise in privately conducted procedures has exposed patients to considerable risks. Among other suggestions, SAI Israel recommended that the Ministry of Health should regularly monitor treatment scopes in public and private units to ensure alignment between treatment capacities in every unit and the available workforce and infrastructure, as well as promptly set the benchmarks for the operation of IVF units factoring the need for compliance monitoring.