Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 08 September 2020
No. I am asking whether members would trust a surgeon who had caused such devastation to their lives to be the person to remove the mesh. I certainly would not, and I know that half of the women who responded to a survey said that they would not, either.
The Cumberlege report cites multiple systematic failings resulting in life-changing harm and makes nine recommendations. I am pleased that the cabinet secretary has confirmed that the Government will implement all the recommendations where it has the power to do so. That is a major step forward, and I welcome it. However, I have to say that mesh-injured women have huge questions about the new mesh service that is being established.
As far as I know, none of the members of the Scottish Mesh Survivors group has been involved in the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland project—and I have been receiving texts from members of that group as we have been speaking today. They have questions. Who is going to staff the service? Will it be the same clinicians in whom women have lost all confidence? I am advised that it will be. What removal techniques will be used? Will they be the same ones that have caused even more damage to some women who have already had partial mesh removals? What accredited training have those who will staff the service had?
The service evaluation that was handed to the First Minister in November 2019 confirms that all of the women who have had partial mesh removal surgery in Scotland continue to suffer chronic pain and that half of those surveyed did not undergo removal surgery because they do not trust the service. The service’s only published research confirms that surgeons did not do total mesh removal but thought that they had—they thought that they had taken it all out, but they had not.
How can the service be allowed to carry out surgery when surgeons cannot do safe total removal? Why did the lead clinicians fail to engage with Dr Veronikis when he offered help, advice and learning? What happened to the patient information leaflet? That decision-making aid was developed by Dr Agur and Scottish mesh-injured women and was sent to the First Minister in November 2019, but it still has not been introduced across the board a year later.
Why are mesh-injured patients being denied access to the multidisciplinary team meetings that are held to discuss their health and their cases? They are being denied access to those meetings. It is not for surgeons to tell women what they can and cannot have. Even if the clinician’s preference is to leave an implant in, women must have autonomy of choice over what happens to their health and their body.
Why have only a hand-picked few been involved in the design of the service? None of the Scottish mesh-injured women from the group that has campaigned so vigorously here has been involved in the design process. If the service continues in the same way it is setting itself up to fail from the outset, and it would be a crying shame if that were allowed to happen.
The development of the service must be suspended at this point until all those questions are answered; if that happens, we might be able to move forward. I make a plea to the cabinet secretary: do not waste public money on the service when there are so many question marks hanging over it. There are people out there who are desperate for help, but they will not go to the service under the current circumstances.
The NHS guidance says:
“In very rare circumstances, consideration will be given to funding referral to a highly specialised care provider in an internationally recognised unit overseas.”
This is a unique set of circumstances: patients have been abandoned by the system for 20 years, there is an unprecedented scandal around implants and there has been a failure to commission full safe removal. The First Minister and the health secretary have recognised the very rare circumstances of the scandal. They recognised that international help was needed—hence the contact with Dr Veronikis. It is unprecedented that Alex Neil’s suspension of the use of mesh, which followed the work of the Parliament’s petitions system, remains in place. There is also an unprecedented level of mistrust in the surgical community and what skills the members of that community might or might not have. They are entrenched in a legacy of a failure to adhere to the principle that is central to their oath: first, do no harm.
We are talking about a massive global female health scandal, and there is now only one credible option that respects the autonomy of the women concerned, that recognises the unique set of circumstances that they are in and that will instil confidence in them—to allow, without further delay, the NHS to finance travel abroad or within the UK, if the right service can be found, to receive treatment from a surgeon of their choice. They must have autonomy. These women are heroes and they deserve nothing less.
Let us remember all those who have died too young of mesh-related illnesses. Today, especially, let us remember Mrs Eileen Baxter, who was the first woman to have mesh identified on her death certificate as a contributory factor. God bless her and her family, who continue to fight in her memory.
I move amendment S5M-22635.3, to insert after “Commissioner”:
“; calls on the Scottish Government to commit to the implementation of all of the recommendations of the report over which it has power; urges it to halt the development of the new specialist mesh service until it confirms who will be carrying out procedures at these centres, what training they have had and whether this is credible, whether any of the surgeons are proficient in carrying out full mesh removal procedures, that patient decision aids have been introduced and that representatives of mesh-injured women have been involved in the design of the service”.
15:07Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.