Public consultation session – 30 March 2019

The Review is holding a consultation to hear your experiences with assisted reproductive treatment (ART) and your views on the Review's ideas for improvements. The Review is preparing its final report by the end of April so this is an opportunity to have your say on how to improve ART in Victoria.

This consultation is for both intended and current parents, previous patients, donors, surrogates, and persons born of ART. There will be no representatives of the industry (that is, no clinic staff or representatives will be there, nor will any representative from VARTA ). There will be different ways in which you can provide your story or feedback when you are there, so you do not have to speak in front of anyone if you would prefer not to.


Public consultation details:

Date: Saturday 30 March 2019

Time: 10:30am to 1:30pm

Location: Hawthorn Arts Centre

360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided.

How to register

If you would like to attend the consultation, please email Rebekah McDonald at rebekah.mcdonald@dhhs.vic.gov.au, make sure to include:

  • Full names of all attendees
  • The names and ages of children attending
  • Any dietary requirements, allergies or intolerances of all attendees
  • Any accessibility requirements

Registration closes Wednesday 20 March 2019.

We have room for 70 people to attend this consultation. There will be other methods of contributing if the maximum number of attendees is reached.

It is really important to the Review to hear from the people who are using and most impacted by the services. We greatly appreciate your participation.


Childcare facilities during the consultation

the Review has hired KidzKlub Australia to provide childcare to anyone attending who requires it.

Kidzklub Australia is comprised of trained professionals (including teachers, teachers in training, and childcare workers) with first aid certificates and Working With Children checks. There are minimum ratios of staff to children, and a minimum of 2 staff at all times regardless of how small the group is.

Kidzklub Australia can cater for children and babies of all ages, and if appropriately forewarned, will have the equipment necessary to care for newborns. Kidzklub Australia will provide activities and entertainment for the children for the duration of the consultation (this might be, for example, art or music activities, movies, books or dress ups). Lunch will also be provided for the children attending.

The childcare will be in a separate room to the consultation but within the same building at the Hawthorn Arts Centre.

Accessibility

All public areas of the Hawthorn Arts Centre are fully wheelchair accessible, and guide and companion dogs are welcome throughout the venue.

Public parking is available at the rear of the venue, accessible from Kent St or Oxley Road. This parking is not exclusive to the venue.

Additionally, Hawthorn Arts centre is close to both trams (Routes 16, 70 and 75, in order of distance) and trains (Glenferrie Station, Alamein/Belgrave/Lilydale lines).

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your views and experiences about the way assisted reproductive treatment (ART) is provided in Victoria.

Assisted reproductive treatment refers to a wide range of treatments used to help people to have a child. This includes treatments like ovulation induction, artificial insemination and IVF. It also includes the use of donors and surrogates.

Your input has informed an Interim Report on the review of Victoria’s Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008.

The review is being led by experienced lawyer Michael Gorton, who is the Chair of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and of Alfred Health. He is also the former chair of the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority and the Patient Review Panel as well as an Ambulance Victoria board member.

Forty written submissions were received in response to the consultation paper, and there were 191 responses to the survey.

Additionally, the Review held approximately 40 meetings involving more than 120 stakeholders between July and September 2018.

The Government has released the Interim Report. A final report will be provided to the Minister in April 2019.

The Interim Report can be found in the ‘Document Library’ on this page.

Further targeted consultation will be held in the lead up to the final report.


How you can participate

The online consultation period for this review has now ended.

Thank you for your input.

Additional background and the terms of reference for the review can be found on the health.vic website.

Formal Submissions

You can upload a formal written submission in response to any or all of the more detailed questions posed in the consultation paper located in the 'Document Library'.
Would you like your submission to be: Required

Please choose one option below

The survey form is now closed. Thanks for your contributions.

Answer our survey

Before answering the survey, you can choose to read the Consultation Paper for more background but this is not a requirement. You can also answer all the survey questions or just those relevant to you.

Questions

Access

It has been suggested that not everyone who wants to use assisted reproductive treatment can get access to the services they need. This might be to do with cost, where services are located, the availability of donors or people willing to act as surrogates, or discrimination against some groups in the community (for example LGBTI people or people from different religious or cultural backgrounds).

Question 4: Do you believe access to assisted reproductive treatment is a problem in Victoria?
Question 5: Have you, or do you know of someone who has, faced barriers accessing assisted reproductive treatment?

Information

Having the right information is critical if people are going to make informed choices about the services they use and the treatments they get. It has been suggested that some of the information available about assisted reproductive treatment, how effective it is and the true costs can be misleading or difficult to understand.

Question 7: In your experience have you, or people you know of, received appropriate information to make informed choices about treatment?

Support for people before, during and after treatment

Assisted reproductive treatment can be financially, physically and emotionally draining. It can be particularly hard if treatment is not successful. It is important that services provide individual support that looks after the health and well-being of each person involved. This includes people receiving treatment as well as donors and surrogates. It must also include protecting the best interests of any child to be born as a result of assisted reproductive treatment.

Question 9: Do providers do enough to look after people who are participating in assisted reproductive treatment (this might include people who are seeking treatment, donors or surrogates)?

Safety, quality and oversight

A range of organisations at the state and national level have a role in the oversight of assisted reproductive treatment. Some questions have been raised about whether the right rules and bodies are in place to make sure services are safe and of high quality .

Your story

Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself:

Do you identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?
Do you speak a language other than English at home?
Do you live in:
Would you describe yourself as -
Have you submitted (or do you intend to submit) a formal response to the consultation paper as well as your response to this survey?

The survey form is now closed. Thanks for your contributions.

Privacy collection notice

The Department of Health and Human Services (the department) is supporting the independent reviewer, Mr Michael Gorton AM, in conducting this review. The department is committed to protecting your privacy.

Any personal information included in your submission will be used for the purposes of contextualising your response; identifying organisations or individuals for further consultation follow up; and for notifying you of the outcomes of the consultation.

In order to complete the review, we may draw on your submission for our interim and/or final reports, which may be publically available. If you request that your submission not be published no identifying information will be included and your submission may drawn on but will not be directly quoted. If you request that your submission be treated as anonymous, it may be referenced or quoted in these reports but no identifying material will be included.

We may also publish submissions (in whole or in part) online. Submissions will only be published with with consent. All submissions to be published will be at the discretion of the reviewer and submissions may be redacted in some cases. If you request that your submission be treated as anonymous any identifying details will be removed before it is published.

For more information on the department’s privacy collection, please refer to the department’s privacy policy or visit our website on https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/publications/privacy-policy

The department can be contacted on art.review@dhhs.vic.gov.au or you may contact the department’s Information Sharing and Privacy team by emailing privacy@dhhs.vic.gov.au.