{"id":519800,"date":"2026-03-05T07:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/519800\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:23:10","slug":"monash-ivf-to-pay-financial-settlement-to-families-caught-up-in-embryo-bungles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/519800\/","title":{"rendered":"Monash IVF to pay financial settlement to families caught up in embryo bungles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Fertility giant Monash IVF has agreed to pay financial settlements to families involved in two major bungles that saw two women transferred the wrong embryo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">In February 2025 the company became aware that one of its Brisbane clinic&#8217;s patients <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-04-10\/monash-ivf-mix-up-baby-embryo\/105162396\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105162396\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">had wrongly been implanted<\/a> with another woman&#8217;s embryo in 2023, and had later given birth to a baby who had no genetic links to her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The company disclosed the incident to the <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-04-25\/qld-monash-ivf-asx-embryo-mix-up\/105215628\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105215628\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stock market<\/a> in April, apologised to the birth mother and the biological mother and commissioned an independent investigation.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A close up of an embryo being created with scientific equipment in a lab.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f7fdc220afb1060a4c1b209e18bb08d1.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The fertility company says it deeply regrets the mix-ups and has taken significant steps to strengthen its operations. (Supplied: Adobe)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Months later Monash IVF apologised after a <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-06-10\/monash-ivf-incorrect-embryo-transfer-clayton-asx-announceme\/105397894\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105397894\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second incident<\/a>, this time at its Clayton clinic in Melbourne, where a woman&#8217;s own embryo was incorrectly transferred to her, instead of her partner&#8217;s embryo, contrary to their treatment plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Monash IVF apologised for the incident in June last year and launched an internal investigation. It also prompted the company to expand its investigation into the first error that affected the Brisbane patient.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">In a statement today, Monash IVF spokesperson confirmed the company had settled or agreed to settle with the families affected at the Brisbane clinic and the Clayton clinic.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We deeply regret the events from 2025 and have taken significant steps to strengthen our safety culture and enhance oversight across all sites,&#8221;  the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;We have also worked closely with the regulator to ensure our systems meet and, where possible, exceed required standards and community expectations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;Patients can be confident that we have learned from these events and taken decisive steps to ensure our systems are as rigorous and robust as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The spokesperson did not disclose the value of the settlements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">In its half-yearly results report to the Australian Stock Exchange in February this year, Monash IVF said its insurers had confirmed indemnity for the claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;Based on information available at the reporting date, and having regard to insurance coverage in place, the Directors do not expect any material exposures to arise in connection with these matters,&#8221; the report said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Following the incidents last year, the company committed to immediately implementing &#8220;additional verification processes and patient confirmation safeguards over and above normal practice and electronic witness systems&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Days after the company told the stock market about the second incident in June its <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-06-12\/monash-ceo-michael-knapp-steps-down-embryo-bungle\/105407100\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105407100\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">chief executive officer Michael Knaap resigned<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The company commissioned an <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-08-20\/monash-ivf-embryo-bungle-review-brisbane-melbourne\/105675124\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105675124\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">independent review<\/a> into the embryo mix-ups, led by barrister Fiona McLeod, which found that the Brisbane incident was the result of human error, while the Melbourne incident resulted from a range of factors including human error, IT system limitations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Last year, Monash IVF told the ASX it had already implemented many of the recommendations from the independent review as a result of its own internal investigation and committed to implementing the remainder of the review&#8217;s recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fertility giant Monash IVF has agreed to pay financial settlements to families involved in two major bungles that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,259518,61568,259519,259520],"class_list":{"0":"post-519800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-ivf-embryos-mixed-up","12":"tag-monash-ivf","13":"tag-monash-ivf-wrong-embryo","14":"tag-risks-of-ivf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}