NHS bosses have apologised for justifying denying single women IVF treatment by saying they would be a burden to society and “unable to bring out the best outcomes for the child”.

NHS South East London has said sorry for the “offence and distress” it caused, which prompted 175 single mothers to complain about its “misguided and offensive” language.

The NHS organisation, which decides which patients in six London boroughs get access to treatments, said sorry in a letter to Sarah Harvey, who organised the complaint. The wording of its fertility document was unacceptable, it said.

“I would like to apologise on behalf of NHS commissioners in south-east London for any offence and distress caused by both the wording in the south-east London treatment access policy in relation to single women’s access to IVF treatment and the review document it refers to,” said Andrew Bland, the accountable officer for the NHS South East London Commissioning Alliance, in his letter of reply to the women’s objection.

“We agree this wording is not acceptable and we will take action to address this as we conduct a rapid review of the policy in relation to access criteria for funding IVF.”

The NHS body, which covers an area in which 2 million people live, made headlines last month when it banned single women from having IVF treatment. Guidance explaining the policy was based on a document it had put together that stated: “Single mothers are generally poorer; they are likely to have greater support needs compared to two-parent couples, thereby placing a greater burden on society in general.

“Aristotle’s principle of equality says treat equals equally, so a couple compared to a couple is equal. A woman or man compared to a couple is not equal, and by attempting to think of them as such has no ground or support.”

It added: “A sole woman is unable to bring out the best outcomes for the child.”

The women criticised the latter statement as “prejudiced and not based in fact”. Research has shown that one parent is just as capable of bringing up a child as two are, and that children reared by just their mother have lower rates of mental illness, according to the group.

The NHS in Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich was conducting “a rapid review of this area of the policy”, said Bland.

He also backtracked on another claim by the NHS body that “denial of fertility treatment has a limited impact on a woman’s life satisfaction”. He said: “We know that infertility causes suffering and is a condition that requires investigation, management and treatment.”