Government is putting together a travel package to help people who leave the province to access in vitro fertilization services elsewhere, but the group Faces of Fertility says what we really need is our own clinic.

Some couples have no choice but to seek fertility treatments to have a child, but the cost is in the tens of thousands when all is taken into account including airfare, hotel, and medication.

Health Minister John Haggie says they’re putting the finishing touches on a travel package and hope to have some news in the near future. He’s not as optimistic about having our own IVF clinic. He says we don’t have enough patients to enable doctors to keep up their skills.

However, Ledon Wellon of Faces of Fertility says about 100 women a year leave to seek such services but many who wish to simply cannot afford it.

She says we have two doctors who are trained and willing to do IVF. and that they have been fighting for a clinic longer than she has. Wellon doesn’t see how NL would not end up with enough people requiring services to support the doctors we have.