A NEW fertility centre which could help hundreds of childless couples in the region is being considered for the North-East.

The private Woodlands Hospital in Darlington is looking to set up an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) facility at its site, with the help of a leading North-East fertility specialist.

Hospital bosses have been speaking to Dr Kamal Ahuja, who runs the Cromwell IVF unit at the private Washington Hospital, about the possibility of running a similar scheme in Darlington.

Dr Ahuja, who is also director of a fertility centre in London, stressed that the proposals are in their early stages.

But he did confirm that a planning application has been submitted to Darlington Borough Council.

He said: "I'm simply responding to the needs of the patients and I think the Woodlands Hospital would like it very much.

"It's a new hospital in Darlington and they invited us to come and look at the prospects of IVF there, so we did."

Dr Ahuja said the proposal would have to go through the planning process first, then a business plan would be written and an application made to the regulatory authority for a licence, before the clinic could proceed.

If the plans come to fruition, it is expected the clinic would be run along similar lines to the successful Washington unit, which opened in 1990.

Doctors at the Wearside clinic pioneered an egg-sharing programme, which has since been copied worldwide, in which donor couples get free treatment while giving half their eggs to help another couple overcome childlessness.

Woodlands Hospital was embroiled in a national controversy earlier this year when it offered separate vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, during the debate about the safety of the combined vaccine.

The hospital had little to say about plans for the IVF facility, but issued a joint statement from managing director Anne Rhodes and Dr Ahuja.

The statement said: "Darlington's Woodlands Hospital is in talks with the Cromwell IVF and Fertility Centre in London about the possibility of setting up an IVF unit at Woodlands.

"We expect to make an announcement later in the summer."