Setting up a new fertility clinic in the UK requires procurement of IVF supplies across multiple categories before the first treatment cycle can take place. The HFEA will not licence a clinic that cannot demonstrate it has the correct storage, safety, and procedural infrastructure in place. Getting the supply list right at commissioning – rather than retrofitting after opening – avoids the operational and regulatory disruption that comes from discovering gaps mid-cycle.
What storage IVF supplies are required from day one?
A minimum storage setup for a new IVF clinic requires at least two liquid nitrogen storage vessels (one primary, one backup), a full complement of cryogenic consumables for the anticipated sample load in the first 12 months, and a controlled rate freezer if slow-freeze sperm cryopreservation is part of the clinical programme. The storage vessel capacity should be specified for five years of projected sample growth, not for the opening caseload.
What procedural IVF supplies are needed at commissioning?
Procedural supplies at commissioning include vitrification kits, denudation and holding pipettes, biopsy pipettes (if PGT-A is offered), sperm straws, and all supporting culture consumables. The vitrification kit must be specified alongside the warming protocol to ensure compatibility – the carrier system and solution set must be from the same validated protocol.
What safety IVF supplies are required by regulation?
Cryogenic safety equipment – gloves, face shields, aprons, and oxygen depletion monitoring – is required before liquid nitrogen is brought into the building. This is an HSE requirement, not a best-practice recommendation.
The most common IVF supply gap at new clinic commissioning is not the major equipment – it is the consumables: the right cryosleeves, the right straw format, the right pipette bore sizes. These are specified last and delay opening first.
Cryolab can supply the full IVF supply list for a new clinic from a single source. Contact the team at cryolab.co.uk/contact-us/.
