Hansard

I know that all members will wish to pay tribute to all the people who have been affected by the failings in our health system as listed in the review. They did what their health service failed to do—they supported one another and fought for years, sometimes decades—to have their stories heard. I hope that the Cumberlege report has been the cause of some relief to them, but it should never have come to this.

I would like to focus on the issues that I highlighted in my amendment. I should say that my amendment has been selected alongside the amendments of two of the three “meshketeers”—that is the name that has been given to Neil Findlay, Jackson Carlaw and Alex Neil by the Scottish mesh survivors. The fact that those incredible campaigning women are still able to employ humour tells us so much about their spirit; it also shows how grateful they are to each of those members for their consistent, on-going determined and vocal support. I think that it is fair to say that few women would ever imagine that they would share their most intimate health problems with men who were neither physicians nor partners.

I want to focus on the issues that I highlighted in my amendment. We cannot ignore the fact that the scandals that were examined in the review specifically affect women. Its findings speak to a larger culture of silence around women’s pain and discomfort. It should not be news to anyone here that that pain is still being normalised and dismissed as “women’s problems”. How many times in the chamber have we discussed the stigma around periods and the menopause? Despite that, the review highlights instances in which women were told that their symptoms were just “part of that time of life”. Aside from the fact that that was obviously not the case, why are women continually expected to simply put up with distressing symptoms because it is part of being a woman? When will women be listened to and, more important, believed?

It is clear to me, having read the review report, that the ways in which women are disadvantaged when accessing the health service played a significant part in the scandals. The report states:

“the whole pharmaceutical and devices regulatory systems have been criticised as being sub-optimal for women.”

We need to recognise how issues such as race intersect with this. The 2019 report by MBRRACE-UK found that

“black women are five times more likely to die as a result of complications in their pregnancy than white women.”

The risk for Asian and mixed-race women was twofold and threefold respectively. We need to acknowledge the barriers that all women face when accessing healthcare in Scotland. That is the key to ensuring that women such as the mesh survivors are never again forced to battle for years just to be heard.

Like many other members, I met the mesh survivors when they came to the Parliament in 2017. I will never forget meeting them, in that small room on the ground floor, off the garden lobby. The room was too small for those who had made the huge effort to come here to their Parliament to share their shocking personal details with their representatives. That group of women had undergone surgery to address incontinence and found themselves requiring crutches and wheelchairs. One woman and her husband described her 24-hour-a-day incontinence. I cannot imagine the impact that that will have had on their lives—not just the physical limitations, but the impact on their independence, mental health, self-esteem and self-confidence.

Like other colleagues, I met women who had been forced to leave their jobs—really important jobs—who could no longer look after a loved one, or who were heartbroken because they could no longer lift up their grandchildren. They were women of different ages and backgrounds, who banded together and supported one another at a time of great physical and mental distress. Their persistence and bravery are truly awe-inspiring, but they should never have had to fight that battle, and it certainly should not have taken this long.

The mesh survivors have had to deal with unimaginable pain, loss of career and income and impacts on family relationships—and imagine having to campaign relentlessly at a time when your focus should be solely on your health. I am sure that we all agree that no one should ever again have to go to such lengths to be listened to, and that every women affected should have access to the support and treatment that are required to bring about the most optimal health outcome possible.

We need a complex mesh removal surgical service for women experiencing complications following vaginal mesh implants, given the trauma that the women have experienced as a result of their pain and their struggle to be listened to. Psychological support has to be an important part of that service, too.

There must be a rebuilding of trust between the women affected and the health service. Many women will, understandably, be very wary of being treated by the same clinicians who implanted the mesh in the first instance.