The state government engaged Ghosh Dastidar Institute for Fertility Research, (GDIFR), a Gariahat-based clinic owned by former Trinamul Congress minister Dr Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, to run a centre of excellence of assisted reproductive technology (ART)- cum-invitro fertility clinic (IVF) at SSKM Hospital.
Dr Ghosh Dastidar’s wife Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is a TMC MP from Barasat. The cash-strapped state government will cough up around Rs 2.35 crore for three years to “operate, maintain and manage” the ART centre that will come up in the second floor of the OPD clinic at SSKM Hospital.
The GDIFR has been selected for three years through tender by the government, SSKM Hospital sources said. The agency would give consultancy and logistic support in setting up of the ARTcum-IVF centre at the hospital. It would also train government gynaecologists, embryologists, sonologists, nurses and other medical staff on fertility treatment.
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After the completion of the three years’ contract the agreement with Dr Ghosh Dastidar’s agency will be ended and the trained doctors, nurses and technicians would run the centre. The state government plans to provide IVF treatment to couples free of costs, it is learnt.
The cost of a single cycle of IVF varies between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh at various private fertility clinics in the city. Since the success rate of live births is only 30 to 40 per cent, more cycles are needed. “Cost is the main reason why many people cannot afford IVF. If one can afford six cycles of IVF, the success rate will go up to 80 or 90 per cent.
But the cost also goes up to Rs 4 lakh. Now, more people will be able to get IVF treatment at SSKM centre,” said a gynaecologist associated with the hospital. According to estimates, a little less than 10 per cent of all married couples suffer from infertility. While most of them get results through medicines or artificial insemination of sperm into the uterus, about five per cent of such couples need IVF.
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