BASILDON has been named one of the worst places for fertility treatment offered by the NHS.

The town has been placed among the bottom of a league table of NHS-funded IVF provision in England, according to a report by campaign group Fertility Fairness.

Just 24 out of 208 clinical commissioning groups in England offer three cycles of IVF, which increases the chances of a successful pregnancy to between 45 and 53 per cent.

Seven areas, including Basildon, have removed NHS IVF entirely.

Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group stopped funding IVF treatment altogether at the end of last year in a bid to save £14million.

Southend Clinical Commissioning Group also wants to stop the two rounds of IVF it has been offering.

Other areas at the bottom of the pile for IVF funding include mid Essex, north east Essex, Croydon, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Places still offering a round of three treatments on the NHS include Bury, Oldham, Tameside and Glossop.

Guidelines from the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence (Nice) recommend that eligible women under 40 should be offered three full IVF cycles.

As NHS treatments are becoming increasingly restricted, patients are being forced to go private.

The report found thousands of private patients are being charged more than three times as much for the likes of blood tests, drugs and consultations.

The average cost for a single cycle of IVF in the UK is £3,348 – with the highest was £4,195 and the lowest £2,650, according to research by Opinium.

The price for additional charges – such as registration fees and nurse consultations – vary between clinics from £655 to £2,335.

Aileen Feeney, chief executive of the patient charity Fertility Network UK, said: “It is unfair that after facing this postcode lottery for NHS care patients then face the inequities of a private system where prices for fertility services vary across the country. “

Susan Seenan, from campaign group Fertility Fairness, said: “The decision to cut NHS IVF for new and existing patients is cruel and unethical.”