Height of ignorance
Health Secretary won’t meet us, say mesh campaigners
Mesh campaigners claim Health Secretary Humza Yousaf refused to meet them to hear their concerns.
Patients blame surgical mesh products for leaving them disabled and in chronic pain and want the Scottish Government to hold an independent review into the use of the products.
However, following a debate in the Scottish Parliament earlier this month, the Health Secretary denied their request.
Campaigner Roseanna Clarkin, of the Scottish Global Mesh Alliance, said Yousaf has refused several requests for meetings with campaigners spanning nearly two years.
Roseanna, who has been left with crippling pain after mesh was used on her umbilical hernia in 2015, has blasted him for “ignoring” those affected by mesh procedures.
The 39-year-old, from Clydebank, said: “The Health Secretary has not been willing to meet with us and that says it all. It’s ignorance at its best.
“I’ve had meetings with former health secretaries Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman as well as Scotland’s former chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood, who all listened to our concerns.
“However, since Humza Yousaf became Health Secretary in May 2021, I’ve never had a meeting. We have been trying to have a face-toface meeting with him for nearly two years so we can properly explain how mesh has affected us, how dangerous it really is and why it needs to be suspended.
“He hasn’t been willing to meet us at all despite our repeated requests. ”
From the late 90s until 2018, women in Scotland were treated with poly propylene mesh implants for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. In some, it caused severe pain and life-changing side effects.
While the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review called for a pause in use of vaginal mesh, the products are not banned for all procedures. The Scottish Global Mesh Alliance were behind the petition calling for an independent review which was debated at Holyrood. They want to suspend the use of all surgical mesh and fixation devices while a review is carried out.
Roseanna said: “Why do they assume mesh in another part of the body would respond differently and not cause extreme pain and serious infections?”
In 2021 the Scottish Health Technologies Group ( SHTG) recommended the continued availability of mesh as an option for elective repair of hernia operations in adults.
During the debate the Health Secretary said, given the conclusions of the SHTG, a further review into mesh would not be “warranted”.
Addressing requests from petitioners, he said he was open to meeting but that it may not change his mind with regards to an independent review. Yousaf said to suspend the use of mesh would leave a cohort of people with limited or, indeed, no treatment options.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said:“We are not aware of any such requests for a meeting, but the Health Secretary will consider any such requests should they be made by the campaigners.”