PLANS to scrap free IVF treatment at Basildon Hospital have caused outrage.

NHS Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is considering scrapping funding for IVF treatments at the hospital as part of a wider service cuts to save £14million.

The group is currently facing a deficit unless it reduces spending and has launched a consultation to cut a number of services, including e-cigarettes, cosmetic procedures such as liposuction and breast enlargements, and simultaneous joint replacements.

However, Jade Collins, who underwent IVF treatment after she and her husband, Lewis, struggled to conceive, thinks it is a terrible move.

Mrs Collins, 26, of Pitsea, said: “It would be such a shame if they got rid of IVF.

“It was a godsend when we were trying.

“If you are struggling to have children it is like being in a very big, dark tunnel.

“IVF is like the light at the end of that tunnel.

“Even if they will fund only one attempt - and most people are successful on their first attempt - that would still be something.”

Mrs Collins had one IVF attempt fully funded by the NHS and another course half funded.

They were then able to stump up the £7,000 for another attempt privately, when Mrs Collins fell pregnant naturally with their now six-month-old son Harry.

“He was a miracle baby,” Mrs Collins said.

“People who haven’t been through really wanting a child but not being able to have one don’t know what it is like.

“It is a daily struggle.”

The CCG is not the first to announce service cuts.

In January, Mid Essex CCG decided to stop routine funding of gluten-free foods on prescription and to not routinely fund vasectomy and female sterilisation in mid Essex.

It also decided to only offer funding for gluten-free foods and vasectomy and female sterilisation in clinically exceptional cases.

In May, Southend CCG approved plans to not fund gluten-free food on prescription and in June, Castle Point and Rochford CCG decided that the quantity of prescribed food is reduced by 50 per cent with a plan to stop all prescribing of gluten free food by July 1, 2017.