Health Secretary John Reid will consider expanding fertility services once every health trust offers at least one full course of treatment, he pledged yesterday.

Speaking to The Birmingham Post, Dr Reid said he wanted all Primary Care Trusts to offer one course of treatment by April.

But once the target was met he would consider whether the PCTs should be set a target of offering two or three courses of treatment, further boosting the chance of patients achieving a pregnancy, he said.

The Birmingham Post has launched a campaign - Funded Fertility Treatment For All - to end the postcode lottery which means some trusts already provide more than one course of treatment while others offer none at all.

The Government has told all PCTs to ensure they offer at least one course, known as a cycle, by April.

But the National Institute of Clinical Excellence has recommended that women should be offered up to three courses of treatment to increase the chances of success.

Dr Reid also said Labour would go into the next election promising to cut waiting times for NHS patients to 18 weeks, even if that meant paying private health firms.

He said: "I hope everyone will do what is required of them, because it is only fair that wherever you live in the country, you have the opportunity to receive fertility treatment.

"It will be at least one cycle of treatment. There are some PCTs offering more, and I have made it clear that once at least one cycle is available everywhere I will consider whether we should offer more."

"By 2008 you will be able to choose to go to any hospital in England you want, in the NHS, in the private sector, or in a charitable sector, provided only that it meets the health standards and that it charges the NHS price."

He added: " Everybody would prefer first class health care at their local hospital.

"If you live in Wolverhampton, you want the local hospital; if you live in Birmingham, you want the local hospital.

"But the truth is that not everybody has the best hospital in the world at the end of their street.

"And therefore we are giving them the right to go elsewhere . . . and this gives the people at the end of your street even more incentive to provide a better service."

He said this contrasted sharply with Conservative plans for a "patient's passport", which would allow people to share the cost of private treatment with the state.

This would allow people to receive treatment more quickly if they could afford it and take resources away from the NHS services used by the less wealthy, said Dr Reid.

"I find the Tory policy on the patient's passport to be morally repugnant."

But he hinted he expected his policy to be criticised by some Labour colleagues.