Campaigners insist mesh implant report doesn’t go far enough

JUST over 1% of people who had a mesh implant to treat a prolapse had them removed over a nine year period, official figures have revealed.

The Department of Health has released new statistics on the use of the controversial mesh implants and subsequent removals.

They show that, between 2008 and 2017, some 694 patients had a mesh insertion procedure for prolapse.

Nine patients were readmitted to hospital for a removal procedure, according to the report.

However, a campaign group has said the figures do not reflect the agony being endured by hundreds of people across Northern Ireland.

Jackie Harvey from Sling the Mesh NI said: “These statistics only show the number of people who have been in hospital to have their mesh removed.

“They don’t reveal the countless people in our group who have been suffering for years and have been told that it was all in their mind, that there was nothing wrong with them.

“For far too long, women have been suffering, they have been robbed of their mobility, robbed of their jobs, their relationships.

“Some patients have even been referred to psychology as though they are mad. These figures don’t reflect the people who are being referred to pain clinics, who are going back and forward to their GP for years or being fobbed off by consultants.”

Ms Harvey said it is essential that as many women as possible attend an upcoming fact finding mission to Belfast by the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review.

Chaired by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, the review was announced in February by the Health Secretary at the time, Jeremy Hunt. It is investigating how the health system responds to reports from patients about harmful side effects from medicines and medical devices.

It is looking at the hormone pregnancy test, Primodos, anti-epileptic drug, sodium valproate, and surgical mesh.

The review team will be at the Hilton Hotel at Lanyon Place in Belfast on December 6 to hear from affected patients.

Ms Harvey continued: “For so long, we were told there was nothing wrong with mesh but officials are finally acknowledging that isn’t the case. Only recently we have had two women from our support group go to England to have the mesh removed.

“They came back and for the first time since I met them they were able to come to one of our meetings without using crutches. It was so emotional.

“It’s absolutely vital that as many people as possible who have been affected, or think they may have been affected by mesh, to come along to the Cumberlege review next week.

“The figures released by the Department of Health really mean nothing, but this review is actually listening to patients and trying to find out the complications that mesh can cause.”

Sinn Fein MLA Órlaithí Flynn has welcomed the publication of the statistics but said more work needs to be done to establish the harm that has been caused by mesh implants.

“The analysis doesn’t include variables such as the type of mesh used, the surgical technique used or patient profiles as these are not collected as part of the hospital inpatient system,” she said. “The data also doesn’t record the severity of the condition before surgery or any subsequent complications.”

In July, health officials in Northern Ireland issued a directive suspending the use of vaginal mesh implants for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.

Women have long complained about vaginal mesh implants causing agony by cutting into tissue. A number have even taken their lives as they were unable to live with the complications. The family of the late Seamus Heaney at the official opening of the Seamus Heaney Lecture Theatre at the DCU St Patrick’s Campus in Dublin, where a new portrait of the poet by renowned Belfast artist Colin Davidson was also unveiled. From left, Catherine, Christopher and Michael Heaney with their mother Marie