Monash IVF makes another embryo bungle at Melbourne fertility clinic

For the second time in almost three months, the fertility services provider has announced an embryo mix-up at its clinic in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton.

Monash IVF incorrectly transferred an embryo to a patient at its Clayton facility, it announced on Tuesday.

Monash IVF has announced its second embryo bungle in less than three months after an incident took place at its Clayton fertility clinic.

On June 5, a patient’s own embryo was incorrectly transferred to the patient, when an embryo from the patient’s partner was supposed to be transferred, per the couple’s treatment plan.

The stuff-up comes after another high-profile mistake from 2023 made headlines recently, where a Brisbane patient gave birth to another couple’s baby following a mix-up.

After said incident, the MVF share price almost halved. MVF shares were smashed on Tuesday, dropping 24 per cent to 56c.

The fertility services company apologised for the recent debacle, and said it is conducting an internal investigation into how it occurred. It also said it is “expanding the scope” of the review into the Brisbane incident.

“Commencing immediately, Monash IVF will implement interim additional verification processes and patient confirmation safeguards over and above normal practice and electronic witness systems, to ensure patients and clinicians have every confidence in its processes,” it said in a statement.

“Whilst industry leading electronic witness systems have and are being rolled out across Monash IVF, there remains instances and circumstances whereby manual witnessing is required.”

It also said it expects the latest incident to “fall within the scope of its insurance coverage” and its guidance is unchanged.

Monash IVF in May downgraded its guidance, expecting annual underlying profit of $27.5m for the year ending June 30, compared to February-issued guidance of profit between $30m and $31m.

At the time the Brisbane patient’s incident was unveiled, it said the Australian-first stuff-up was believed to be the result of “human error”.

“The human error was identified … following the birth parents requesting the transfer of their remaining embryos to another IVF provider. Instead of finding the expected number of embryos, an additional embryo remained in storage for the birth parents,” Monash IVF said at the time.