Patient safety minister meets Cambridgeshire pelvic mesh campaigner to discuss financial redress
A Cambridgeshire campaigner and other patient advocates from Sling The Mesh met Baroness Gillian Merron, the minister for patient safety, to discuss financial redress for women injured by pelvic mesh implants.
Campaigners are hailing it “a significant step forward” in recognising the harm suffered by thousands of women across the UK and the urgent need for redress to address the physical, mental and financial toll of their injuries.
Pelvic mesh implants, including rectopexy mesh, were widely used to treat conditions such as pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, but have left many women with debilitating pain, organ damage, autoimmune disease and other life-altering complications.
Campaigners explain that in spite of years seeking justice for the women injured by mesh implants, affected women have faced mounting medical costs, lost income, lost pensions and faced a diminished quality of life – with little financial support.
Kath Sansom, from Cambridgeshire, who is the founder of Sling The Mesh, said: “The government must act with speed to provide financial redress. Many women have their PIP applications turned down even though they are severely injured, hundreds have lost relationships, their jobs, their pensions. Some have had to sell their homes to live with family as they can’t afford mortgage payments anymore.”
She added: “We were all innocent players in this appalling story which has taken a heavy toll on women, including financially. We trusted in a medical system that should have protected us. Instead, women have lost so much.
“Women harmed by mesh implants deserve financial redress to help rebuild their lives and gain some measure of justice for the suffering they’ve endured.”
The meeting last Tuesday (17 December) focused on potential pathways for redress and heard of the urgency in addressing the issue, with many struggling to afford ongoing medical treatment and getting trapped in cycles of financial worry.
At the meeting, Baroness Merron told campaigners she was “shocked at the degree to which women’s voices have been ignored” in the mesh scandal.
Ahead of the meeting, Sling The Mesh sent a dossier of evidence to the team supporting Baroness Merron, outlining that in the original IMMDS (Independent Medicines and Medical Device Safety) Review they successfully lobbied for all rectopexy-harmed women to be fully included. Yet in the subsequent Hughes Report, campaigners say it appears as if some of those could be excluded.
The baroness told the meeting she would look at both the original IMMDS Review, led by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, and the Hughes Report to check for discrepancies.
