WICKFORD couples who are struggling to conceive a child no longer need to travel miles to get to their nearest IVF clinic.
Bourn Hall Clinic has opened a new fertility centre at Riverside House, Riverside Place, allowing both NHS and private patients in the area to benefit from the treatment.
Those who undergo IVF treatment are required to attend several consultations and a series of monitoring appointments before proceeding to the egg collection, fertilisation and embryo transfer stages.
Now, the team in Wickford can offer patients an initial consultation with a consultant, access to a full time fertility nurse specialist and appointments for blood tests and ultrasound scans.
Those who use the service would then only need to travel to Bourn Hall in Cambridge for the egg collection and embryo transfer procedures.
Julie and Jonathan Thombs, from Wickford, who would have benefited from having a clinic in their home town when they were going through IVF treatment in 2011.
Their baby, Harrison, was born last February.
Mrs Thombs said: "I was working in a bank while having treatment, but Bourn Hall was very good at arranging appointments so that I could drive to Cambridge and back and then catch the train to work in London.
"At one point I was driving to Cambridge up to two or three times a week for blood tests because of my low hormone levels so to have a facility on the doorstep would be brilliant.
"If we decide to have another baby it would be definitely be through IVF and having a more local clinic for routine tests would make it a much easier experience."
Grace Phiri, a fertility nurse specialist, will be the first point of contact for patients at the clinic, which opened on January 7.
She said: "At the moment, Essex patients eligible for NHS-funded IVF treatment tend to travel to Bourn Hall in Cambridge or Colchester or can choose to go to London."
She added: "In the East of England patients that meet the criteria will be eligible for NHS treatment with us and we welcome patients funding their own treatment."
The medical team will include Ms Phiri and Carrie Harding, who both have many years of experience working at the Brentwood Nuffield IVF clinic.
There will also be two part-time consultants, Mr Winston Justin, a consultant at Southend University Hospital and Mr Jitendra Jadhav, a consultant at Basildon University Hospital.
Bourn Hall plans to expand its Wickford clinic so that patients can have all of their treatment in the town.
