THE world's first test-tube baby Louise Brown is 25 today.

To mark her birthday and celebrate the success of IVF treatment more than 30 children and their parents from all over the region gathered in Newcastle.

But as parents swapped stories, a leading specialist voiced concern at the continuing rationing of NHS treatment in the region.

After 13 years of offering IVF (in vitro fertilisation) treatment the Newcastle, specialists can still only treat 40 per cent of the families they see on the NHS.

The rest have to find up to £3,000 per treatment cycle out of their own pockets.

While couples from the Newcastle area will get IVF treatment within two years, patients referred from the northern half of County Durham have been warned that they might have to wait until 2011.

"Sadly, the NHS has been slow to recognise the need for fertility treatment and the anguish suffered by those who are unable to conceive," said Dr Alison Murdoch, consultant gynaecologist at the Centre for Life in Newcastle.

"We have successfully achieved some NHS funding following campaigns involving patient support groups," said Dr Murdoch, whose team treats up to 700 couples a year and has a 25 per cent success rate, higher than the national average.

"Currently, about 60 per cent of our couples must fund treatment themselves," she added.

However, Dr Murdoch is optimistic that fertility treatment will soon be given a higher priority.

"The National Institute for Clinical Excellence will be reporting at the end of this year and it is hoped that, 25 years on, IVF will at last be recognised as a clinical treatment requiring NHS funding.

"This will bring the UK in line with services provided elsewhere in Europe and recognise the pioneering role played by the UK," she said.

Recently, the region's main centre for NHS treatment moved from the Royal Victoria Infirmary to new premises at the Centre for Life.

"We now have facilities that are recognised as being among the best in the UK, and we aim to provide a service to match this standard," said Dr Murdoch.

Irene MacGregor, of Consett, County Durham, strongly believes the NHS should fully fund fertility treatment.

"Of course it should be on the NHS. If you can't conceive because there is something wrong with you, why can't that be treated," said Mrs MacGregor, who waited for a total of 12 years before she got the treatment that led to the birth of two-year-old Jade.

"If it wasn't for that funding, Jade wouldn't be here. It has totally changed our lives," she said.

How one woman overcame her

fertility problems: Health, Page 16