Access to fertility treatment in Britain is among the worst in Europe, according to an IVF league table published yesterday.

Only three countries - Croatia, Austria and Macedonia - offer less IVF treatment per head than Britain, ranking it 12th among 15 countries that supplied data for all of their clinics, according to a report by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

In Britain, where only a quarter of IVF is available on the NHS, just 633 cycles of fertility treatment were carried out per million people in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available. In contrast, Denmark, which tops the IVF league table in its provision of fertility treatment, carried out 2,031 cycles. Nearly 30% of treatment cycles lead to pregnancy. The rate of IVF births in Britain has slowly increased in the past five years to 1.5%, but again falls behind countries such as Denmark where 3.9% of births are from IVF.

In Israel, where there is an active policy to encourage childbirth, 3,000 cycles of treatment are carried out per million population, and some 8% of children are born after fertility treatment.

Fertility specialists said the government should be shamed by the poor access Britons have to fertility treatment and called for more public funding of IVF.

In Denmark, public health services offer five free cycles of IVF. In Britain, guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) allow three treatment cycles on the NHS, but in practice many primary care trusts refuse to fund treatment at all.

Clare Brown, chief executive of patient support group Infertility Network UK, said: "It is totally unacceptable that most other European countries have better service provision for infertility patients than the UK, where IVF was pioneered.

"Infertility treatment has for too long been seen as a low priority, failing couples who face the devastating impact this illness has on a daily basis. We hope the UK government feels a sense of shame at these figures, and takes action to ensure that the Nice guideline is implemented as quickly as possible."

Mark Hamilton, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said better access to IVF was more pressing, given the continuing low birth rate. He said: "We should clearly be funding more IVF, and the patients believe that. Only 25% of IVF in the UK is carried out on the NHS, which is an indictment on the price primary care trusts place on promoting fertility. It's out of step with the principle of affording women control over their fertility."

In a speech in April, Dame Suzy Leather, chair of the government's fertility watchdog, the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Authority, said she wanted the government to follow through on its stated desire to implement the Nice guidelines. She said: "I want to see proper access to treatment for patients ... it's the number one problem faced by patients."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We recognise that infertility causes pain and distress. One in seven couples experience problems, so it is important that infertile couples have access to IVF regardless of where they live. In February 2004, Nice produced guidelines on fertility treatment on the NHS but acknowledged that the NHS could not implement them overnight." Figures included in the league table also reveal a trend of rising male infertility across Europe.