Hansard

The work of the Public Petitions Committee has been hugely important and influential during the past eight years and I plead with the committee not to close this petition for a number of reasons. Also, I say to Jackson Carlaw that, if there are three in this marriage in Parliament, on this final day of the session I am filing for divorce—I am sorry to break it to him publicly. One way in which the committee can justify continuing the petition is that the ban, which was requested in the petition, is not a legislative ban. Jackson Carlaw referred to the cabinet secretary’s letter, but if we have a new cabinet secretary who takes a different view, that ban could end. We know that many in the medical profession would overturn that ban in a heartbeat. They want to restart implanting mesh because they believe that there is nothing wrong with it, despite all the evidence. Secondly, there has never been a public inquiry into what is one of the biggest ever medical scandals in Scotland’s NHS. Therefore, that point of the petition remains as well. A new service is being set up in Glasgow and we will have to see how that develops. There is not a lot of confidence in it from mesh-injured women. However, the other three elements of the petition—mandatory reporting, a register of implants and informed consent—go to the very heart of what that new service might look like. Therefore, the committee should keep the petition open and oversee whether the new service actually has mandatory reporting and a register, and engages in services with fully informed consent. John Scott raised the issue of compensating women who have gone of their own volition to the US or wherever for surgery and paid for that through crowdfunding, savings or borrowing. I raised that with the First Minister last week. She said: “We are making progress on all key asks of the charter; on the asks on which we are not yet making progress, the health secretary has already given instructions—for example, on our finding a way of reimbursing the cost of mesh removal surgery, probably through an extension of the remit of the fund that has been set up.”—Official Report, 18 March 2020; c 16. However, eight days previously, the cabinet secretary’s letter to which Jackson Carlaw referred, to himself, Alex Neil and me, said: “With regard to reimbursing women who have sought treatment from Dr Veronikis at their own expense, Scottish Government officials have investigated in detail whether there exists appropriate statutory authority to use public funds to refund patients who have arranged and received treatment privately, and not through a referral from an NHS Board. Further to this consideration, it is clear that there are not legal powers to reimburse persons in these circumstances.” It went on to say that “the advice is clear with respect to using public funds in this regard.” Those are two contradictory positions. The First Minister says that the Government is looking at how it can do that, but the cabinet secretary has already discounted it. The Government may fall back on saying that it has to be done through a referral from an NHS board. However, the simple fact is that a number of women have taken their request to be referred to an NHS board and had it refused. Therefore, is that route completely blocked? A number of contradictory things are going on and it would be appropriate for the committee to keep the petition open to look into those issues as well. There are other related issues, such as the appointment of the patient safety commissioner following the Cumberlege review—I am not sure who is overseeing or keeping an eye on that process—and there are also issues around the new mesh centre and how it develops. Therefore, for a number of reasons, I urge the committee to continue the petition. You have done fantastic work on it. I know that, as a convener and a committee, I would be trying to wind up loose ends at the end of the term, but this is not a loose end—this must continue. 09:45