Hansard

I was a member of the Public Petitions Committee back in 2014, when the issue of polypropylene mesh medical devices was brought to the committee’s attention by Scottish Mesh Survivors. To this day, I vividly recall the passion and the strength of feeling of all the women who gave their time to attend our meetings to give evidence and to recount their stories and personal experiences. It is thanks to the tenacity and bravery of those women that we are here today to discuss the introduction of the Transvaginal Mesh Removal (Cost Reimbursement) (Scotland) Bill and the significant steps that the Scottish Government has taken to offer assistance and to better help women who were harmed by vaginal mesh and the complications arising from it.

As a current member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, I am delighted that a bill has been introduced that aims to give powers to the Scottish ministers to reimburse persons who entered into private arrangements to pay to have the transvaginal mesh removed from their body, and that the reimbursement will relate to the costs of removal surgery and reasonable connected expenses.

Before it was halted in 2018 by NHS Scotland, the use of polypropylene mesh medical implants to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence left many women with life-changing complications and facing multiple operations to remove it from inside their bodies. The Government’s recognition of the suffering and considerable harm that has been caused as a result of complications arising from the use of transvaginal mesh, and the Government’s determination to do everything within its powers to help those affected, are hugely encouraging. We have already taken decisive action on mesh and now Scotland will be the first UK country to reimburse people for private treatment that was previously sought.

Before I came to the chamber today, I spoke with a constituent who, for more than five years, has been dealing with the trauma that was caused by mesh implants. She was fitted with the implants following a front and back prolapse in November 2016. By February 2017, the mesh had come loose, resulting in her uterus hanging outside her body. That started a chain of visits back and forth to gynaecologists to attempt to find someone to help. Everyone recognised the impossible situation that she was in, but no one could offer a solution.

In her words, her life “effectively ended in 2017”. Because she was living with extensive daily bleeding, double incontinence, constant exhaustion and sizeable uterine tissue building outside her body, she had to give up work and lost contact with family and friends. She went from being an outgoing sociable woman to someone who physically could not leave the house. I do not think that any of us can truly appreciate the mental strain that that must have caused.

After many years of solitude, in a bid to live a normal life by attending a family function, she reports fasting for an entire day and night beforehand in the hope that she might be able to enjoy the occasion. Despite that, she lasted only one hour before having to call family and friends to assist her to leave discreetly for an incident of bowel incontinence. Needless to say, she did not attend any more events. She has recently found a surgeon who has offered her some hope and she is now on the first steps of a journey that she hopes will see her quality of life begin to improve.

It is clear to see why some women felt let down by the NHS and felt the need to seek private arrangements to have transvaginal mesh removed. The daily stress caused by unimaginable pain, accompanied by the difficulties posed by incontinence, have led many women to pay in the region of £20,000 to travel to private clinics for treatment. Although I highlighted someone’s story, it is easy to get lost in numbers. We must look past the data, statistics and costs to see the real people beneath—to see the personal experiences of mothers, daughters, sisters and families all across the country whose lives have been negatively affected by life-changing complications and pain. Many of them have ended up in wheelchairs and endured multiple-organ trauma or extensive nerve damage. All have a story to tell, many of them harrowing, but it is our duty to listen.

Earlier this year, a case record review began, which is looking into concerns raised by patients about their medical records. As we move forward, the continuing work of the review for women who have raised concerns about whether their case records accurately reflect the treatment that they have received, specifically in relation to full and partial removal of mesh, will be a vital tool in ensuring that affected women’s voices are heard. It will give women an opportunity to set out their concerns, have their records reviewed by clinicians and allow for discussion, explanation and mutual understanding. I truly hope that those women get the answers that they need about their situation.

I am delighted to see the bill introduced. I fully support the recommendations in the report and hope that the Government will take them on board—in particular, the recommendation that any scheme must include

“a flexible approach to reimbursement that takes account of individual circumstances”.

The women concerned have already been through so much and I believe that the time is long overdue for all women who need their mesh to be removed to have that done and for us to compensate affected women for the cost of private mesh removal surgery. I pay tribute to the hundreds of women who have come together and campaigned tirelessly to highlight the suffering caused by the effects of polypropylene mesh implant surgery. I look forward to the progress of the bill and to working alongside all colleagues to ensure that no other women will have to endure the dreadful experience that mesh survivors have endured.