Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 08 September 2020
I highlight my entry in the register of members’ interests on an interest in health technologies.
I am grateful for the opportunity to open for the Scottish Conservatives. I recognise that the thorough and rigorous report by Baroness Cumberlege covers a wide variety of cases and issues, and I intend to cover some of them.
However, I begin by focusing on polypropylene mesh implants. The report was thorough on that matter, and it is clear from the often harrowing accounts about mesh implants by victims that swifter action should have been taken when concerns were first raised.
It is with that in mind that I pay tribute to several people who have been at the forefront of campaigning on the issue. First and foremost, I pay tribute to the many women who have campaigned and lobbied the Parliament and Scottish Government on mesh implants. Ever since I was elected as an MSP in 2016, the passion and persistence of the campaigners have been obvious to me and, indeed, to anyone else who is involved in politics in Scotland.
In particular, I note the efforts of Elaine Holmes and Olive McIlroy, who first raised the matter with Parliament through the Public Petitions Committee, back in 2014. Armed with more than 1,700 petition signatures, their efforts and determination from that point onwards, alongside the words of countless others, have not only helped to develop substantial change but have played a critical role in events that led to the development of the report. As Baroness Cumberlege noted,
“the Scottish women and their evidence played a substantial role and my hope is that Scotland will adopt my recommendations and ensure patients are listened to.”
I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to three MSPs in the chamber whose contributions should be recognised and who will, no doubt, speak in later in the debate. The first is Jackson Carlaw. As Conservative health spokesperson in 2014, he met the campaigners, took up the issue on numerous occasions in Parliament and took evidence while on the Public Petitions Committee. He has been a champion for the many women who have been affected by mesh implants, and he continued campaigning on the subject even when it was out of the public glare.
I also pay tribute to two other members who have played critical roles in securing change. Neil Findlay and Alex Neil have been powerful advocates for women who have been affected by mesh in different ways. Both inside and outside the chamber, Neil Findlay has been a potent voice for those women, and he has not shied away from robustly holding the Scottish Government to account when it has dragged its heels. Alex Neil, who was the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing when Elaine Holmes’s and Olive McIlroy’s petition first came to Parliament, was the one who listened to campaigners and requested suspension of the national health service’s use of mesh implants in Scotland, pending safety investigations.