Women being ‘let down by our system’

Payouts for failed treatments hit $27 million in five years

Thousands of women have received compensation after being failed by our health system, with more than $27 million paid out in the past five years.

That includes payouts given to women who lodged an ACC claim after being harmed by surgical mesh, contraception, gynaecological cancer treatment or childbirth.

Information obtained by the

Herald details payouts from the 4182 claims.

Surgical mesh payments soared from $500,000 in 2017 to $5.1 million last year, and birth injury payouts jumped from $500,000 in 2017 to $3.2 million last year.

The findings are part of a new Herald project called In Her Head,

launched today.

It follows the stories of women who say our health system made them feel their crippling illness was a figment of their imagination or “just part of being a woman”.

The project highlights serious problems in the way women have been treated including:

● Continued misuse of surgical mesh in operations for childbirth injuries, despite bans on its use in other countries.

● Long and unpredictable wait times for endometriosis, an oftencrippling condition that leaves many women in extreme pain.

● Shocking accounts of poor medical understanding of women’s health issues, such as one endometriosis sufferer who said her GP told her, at 15, to get pregnant.

Auckland GP and women’s health researcher Orna Mcginn said the ACC payouts were a very small snapshot of the system letting women down.

Many weren’t eligible for ACC as it only covered a small set of poor outcomes, Mcginn said.

For example, women who waited years, sometimes decades, to be diagnosed with endometriosis weren’t entitled to claim.

Many birth injuries were not covered and the information the

Herald received didn’t include those battling post-natal depression without effective support.

“Every single day I am seeing women let down by our system and there are so many areas that could be improved to better their outcomes, ” she said.

Mcginn believed contraception

was a basic right and should be free, but there were so many barriers that resulted in poor outcomes down the track.

“We have a very high rate of unintended pregnancies which are more likely to end in adverse outcomes like stillbirth, neonatal death and maternal suicide.”

One mother, who battled severe postnatal depression, then became pregnant after a surgeon made an error when tying her tubes, described her ACC experience as “brutal” and said she could understand

why people wouldn’t go to the effort of lodging a claim.

Monique Cross said she had to undergo intense psychological assessments to see if she was “bad enough to need counselling”.

“As a person who had internalised everything and had been saying it was all my fault, that whole ACC process did a lot of damage.”

ACC acting chief operating officer Gabrielle O’connor said she recognised mental injury assessments could be difficult but were

necessary to ensure appropriate treatment was provided.

Mcginn said the pandemic had made accessing women’s health services even worse. Waiting times were getting longer and there was a growing backlog because care was not provided during lockdowns.

ACC payouts are made under a “no fault” system, which implies no wrongdoing or blaming of individual health workers. Money can cover lost earnings, treatment cost and rehabilitation.

The data showed that each year, hundreds of claims were paid out for surgical mesh and birth injuries but hundreds more were declined because they didn’t meet ACC’S requirements for compensation.

A 2021 ACC report found women were less likely to make ACC claims and more likely to be declined when they did. They also received far less compensation than men.

In response to that report, the Government took steps to increase cover for some birth injuries.

Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said improving care for women was a priority.

“In particular, there is a focus across the health sector on improving access and equity to sexual and reproductive health services like abortion care, long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCS), maternity and maternal mental health services, and breast and cervical screening,” Verrall said.

“Health reforms provide an opportunity to shift our approach to women’s health.”