Ethical governance
Sydney IVF accredited doctors
Our doctors, who will take responsibility for your medical treatment, are independently practising professionals and you will be ‘contracting’ with them directly.
Treatment cannot proceed without this professional agreement between you and one of the specialist doctors accredited to Sydney IVF. The agreement is established at an appointment with your doctor.
Your doctor has a separate contract with Sydney IVF that comes into place once Sydney IVF accepts your doctor’s referral for treatment at Sydney IVF. Provided the procedure is within Sydney IVF’s treatment policies, this can usually be assumed.
Sydney IVF then assists by making the world’s leading IVF laboratory practices, facilities and nursing support available to you and your doctor during your treatment.
Accredited doctors are free to determine their own clinical policies but if they wish to use Sydney IVF’s facilities they may only do so within Sydney IVF’s clinical boundaries.
Should a doctor’s personal professional policies conflict with your expectations, Sydney IVF will assist you to obtain a second opinion.
Contact: The Clinical Director, Sydney IVF Limited, Box 4384 GPO, Sydney 2001.
Your care at Sydney IVF
Sydney IVF will care for you to the limits of its practical ability to do so.
These limits are described in an agreement that will be explained to you and in a special document, titled Risks and Hazards of IVF and Related Treatment, informally referred to as the pink sheets. This document is shared with you and the contents explained at your first appointment at Sydney IVF.
Sydney IVF’s treatment policies have been developed by two bodies at Sydney IVF - the Professional Advisory Board (which includes doctors and professionals employed by Sydney IVF, and recommends policies to be adopted) and our Ethics Committee, which is independent and examines recommended policies from an ethical perspective.
The recommendations of these bodies are approved by Sydney IVF’s Board of Directors, who ultimately determine the policies that will apply.
It is uncommon for any of these teams to be directly involved in clinical decisions you and your doctor reach, but there are exceptions to this.
Professional Advisory Board
The Professional Advisory Board meets each year and otherwise as required. Its chair is the Medical Director, presently Professor Robert Jansen.
The Professional Advisory Board’s most obvious and regular function is to accredit specialist doctors to practise at Sydney IVF.
Other functions include setting and maintaining professional standards.
In practice, the Professional Advisory Board will not act contrary to advice provided by the Ethics Committee but otherwise has the discretion to set treatment policies for approval by the Board of Directors that, together with laws and externally developed regulations, define Sydney IVF's clinical boundaries.