Health chiefs are to continue to send Morecambe Bay women to the Leeds fertility clinic at the centre of a mix up in which mixed race twins were born to a white couple.

They say there is no reason why dozens of couples from Morecambe Bay who travel to the General Infirmary, in Leeds, each year should not go on having IVF treatment at the clinic.

Meanwhile, health chiefs in Leeds have set up a helpline for any patients of the assisted conception unit who may have concerns.

The NHS in Morecambe Bay has had a contract with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since 1997, when it was agreed that 38 couples would be treated at the clinic each year.

Forty one couples have been referred from Morecambe Bay during the financial year 2002/03.

The couples, who have to meet a range of clinical and social criteria, travel to Leeds for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment on the NHS.

This week, Leeds was named as the clinic where a white woman's eggs were fertilised with the wrong sperm.

She subsequently gave birth to mixed race twins.

Since the mix up the clinic has made changes, and every stage of every "treatment cycle" is now witnessed by a second professional.

Morecambe Bay health chiefs have been in touch with colleagues in Leeds.

Secretary to Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust, Chris Dent, said: "We are confident with the procedures that Leeds has now put in place, and do not have plans to change our current service level agreement."

Director of public health Dr Frank Atherton said the risk of a similar mistake having happened to someone else was one in 50,000, and procedures had since been tightened up.

"The risk is extremely small," he said.

"This is kind of a one-off mix up that's happened, but obviously if women who have had IVF are concerned there's a helpline number they can ring and that will give them access to full information and counselling.

"There's no doubt the Leeds General Infirmary is one of the centres of excellence, it has a very high success rate, and that's the main factor that influenced our decision to put the contract there."

A spokesman for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said it was a, "source of great sorrow" that an error had brought anguish to people it was trying to help.

"We believe the trust is doing all that it can in these difficult circumstances to help those involved."

Morecambe Bay PCT chiefs have said they will take into account an independent review commissioned by the Department of Health, which has yet to report.

l The helpline number for the Leeds unit is 01924-889689.