Here's the beastie!

All my case notes from the Hamilton clinic of Fertility Associates arrived yesterday.

I saw the envelope in the letterbox and I had to just grab it and basically run to the front door! I was so nervous. I put it on the chair without opening it, and looked at it. This was the moment I would finally see the dreaded CPAC form that the clinic had used to deny us funding for fertility treatment. Then I decided I was being silly and tore into it. Here's what I got:

CPAC form - the real one that FA used to score us   :(

You may not have immediately noticed, but see if you can spot the difference between the form above (written not by the Ministry of Health or any other official government body, but by the very clinic manager who has been such a pain.in.the.arse to me) and the form below...

Link to the PDF of the CPAC form I had found on the Bay of Plenty DHB website.

Picture of "official" (as far as I know) form:

The CPAC form that I found online. Spot the difference?

I dunno, the form from FA just looks bogus. There are many differences between the two, but perhaps the most surprising thing is that instead of scoring us the way I had expected, the numbers are a little different too.

For instance, obviously the consultant from FA had only given us a tiny score for "Duration of Infertility", but she had also, unexpectedly, given us the highest possible marks for "Number of Children". I thought that we would only get an (8) for that question, but since the FA form is worded "Children at Home" rather than "Number of Children" we scored a (30). Which was a little say of sunshine in this paperwork quagmire! lol :P

Yeah, so instead of getting a (50) for "Duration of Infertility", we only got a (20). Stinky poos. The form obviously doesn't say ANYTHING about penalising us because hubby has a vasectomy. In fact, the only other place we lost marks was the question "Sterilisation", where we got a (10) half marks.

FA gave us a 60. Minimum pass score is 65. I thought we were due a 68. Turns out we are due a 90!!!

Well! That's more like it!

Now, I only have a couple of things to do:

Contact the Doctor who was on the advisory board that figured out how the CPAC form should be made. Hopefully he will be able to answer my questions about the form. I'm pretty sure that the one FA is using is NOT identical to the "official" one authorised by the National Health Committee.

Contact my diabetes endocrinologist, and share this news with him. He's been really helpful and supportive of this crusade so far. I'm sure he will be most interested.

Contact the advocate from the Health and Disability Commissioner's office, who, unfortunately, gave me a defunct email address so has received nothing I've sent her for the last month. Dumb. Phone it is, then.

Update the Member of Parliament. He's promised to contact the Ministry of Health on our behalf.

Get-writin' my letter of complaint to Fertility Associates Hamilton. Because, no matter how this turns our, so far I am not impressed.

I am incredibly relieved that the CPAC form FA sent me proves my theory, so far. My theory that they have illegally and unlawfully discriminated against us and artificially lowered our score by 30 points, OR perhaps, they just don't know how to use the form properly. Which, for a medical establishment, is a worry in itself.

I think that the first option is more likely. That way, FA are hoping we will give in and pay for private treatment. But we just can't afford it. And this is putting my life on hold. I have to do this right. It's a delicate situation, like trying to hold a jelly in your hands without letting any slip. I feel like if I give too much away, show my cards to early, FA will just steal all my hard work away and not change our score. And not let us have access to funding, or treatment, or pregnancy, or birth, or motherhood.