In its submission to the consultation, the National Clinical Forum - a panel of leading doctors set up to give advice to health boards on service change - said plans to maintain secondary care at four hospital sites were "unsustainable" and that a two-centre model was the "only option with a chance of longer-term sustainability".

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The six indicators were chosen after consultation between doctors' leaders and ministers because they are aspects of clinical care which impact on quality of treatment.

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The body which represents fertility doctors in the UK, the British Fertility Society, welcomed the results of the consultation.

BBC: IVF (Hank Morgan/ Science Photo Library)

Of doctors questioned for an internet poll in February, only one in eight thought their consultation at all adequate, and three-quarters said they had never been consulted.

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But, according to a malpractice suit, at least one of its doctors felt so pressured to use Medtronic products that he called for an in-house ethics consultation.

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He said that doctors did not tend to prioritise the most important information and give it at the beginning of the consultation, adding to the risk that it would be overlooked by the patient.

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