Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 24 November 2021
I thank the cabinet secretary for that assurance. We must ensure that the delivery of that assurance follows the delivery of the bill.
I thank Gillian Martin for her incredibly comprehensive contribution, which detailed some of the residual questions. She is absolutely right in saying that some women might not yet have declared that they would like to have mesh removed and that others might not yet be aware of the bill. As Martin Whitfield and others said, we have to be careful when setting the cut-off date for applications for procedures in the future.
I thank all the other contributors to the bill, including David Torrance, the veteran of the long exchange in the committee; Katy Clark; Gillian Mackay; Craig Hoy; Kaukab Stewart; and Siobhian Brown, who brought us Isobel’s experience, which was, unfortunately, an all-too-typical example of what many of the women have endured.
I thank Rona Mackay; our former colleagues Alex Neil, Neil Findlay, Angus MacDonald, David Stewart and Johann Lamont; and the Presiding Officer, who was in the chair earlier. They have all done terrific work in promoting the issue over the past three parliamentary sessions.
I thank Elaine Holmes, Olive McIlroy, Lorna Farrell, Claire Daisley, Karen Neil, Nancy Honeyball, Gillian Watt and Isobel McLafferty. I have been proud to stand with all those women, who have affection and love for one another. I have attended their Christmas dinners, at which they have provided mutual support to ensure that their morale and their efforts have been sustained.
However, let us not forgot Michele McDougall, who died of cancer and could not get chemotherapy because of the consequences of six previous hernia mesh operations, or Eileen Baxter, who was the first woman to have mesh as the cause of death on her death certificate.
This is not just something that women are currently enduring; it has led to the deaths of some women. It has opened up questions about how women are believed in the health system. It has led to many women—who, at the start, did not believe that there was hope for them—fighting for years through their pain to prevent this from happening to other women. The bill offers them the justice that they deserve.