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Sling The Mesh in the news: 2026
Added on 9 February 2026 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2026

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2026.

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Sling The Mesh in the news: 2025
Added on 7 February 2025 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2025

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2025.

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Sling The Mesh in the news: 2024
Added on 9 February 2024 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2024

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2024.

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2023
Added on 18 August 2023 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2023

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2023.

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2022
Added on 11 December 2022 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2022

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2022. Includes award for Kath Sansom and health secretary pledge to look into financial redress.

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2021
Added on 11 December 2021 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2021

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2021. Includes the topic of mesh removal featuring in an episode of BBC Casualty.

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2020
Added on 11 December 2020 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2020

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2020. Includes publication of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review.

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2019
Added on 11 December 2019 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2019

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2019. Includes NICE guidelines update and Bard’s voluntary product withdrawal.

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2018
Added on 11 December 2018 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2018

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2018. Includes release of the Implant Files and the BMJ exposing the tragedy of mesh implants.

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2017
Added on 11 December 2017 News

Sling The Mesh in the news: 2017

News headlines, features and discussion about Sling The Mesh in 2017. Includes the BBC Panorama investigation and campaigners’ visit to Parliament.

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slingthemesh

Mesh implants are used in operations to treat incontinence, prolapse, hernia, rectopexy and some mastectomy repairs after breast cancer.

🗣️ WE NEED YOUR STORIES FOR HISTORICAL EVIDENCE ON 🗣️ WE NEED YOUR STORIES FOR HISTORICAL EVIDENCE ON OUR WEBSITE. See details below.

Sling The Mesh started in 2015 with 20 women raising concerns that were not being listened to. 

🌍 Today, it is a community of over 12,600 people worldwide both women and men harmed by different types of surgical mesh.

⚠️Our website and social media channels share information about all mesh types used to treat:
Prolapse
Bladder leaks
Hernia repair
Breast cancer reconstruction
Cosmetic breast surgery
Shoulder tear repairs
Bowel issues

🏥❌Harm is not limited to one procedure, one country, or one gender. What links thousands of people is the lack of informed consent, dismissal of complications, and systems that failed to respond.

📊 Each new voice of shared experience strengthens the evidence that harm has been widespread, under‑reported, and ongoing.

📩 It is vital these stories are not lost to history. If you have been affected by surgical mesh, please send your story to:
meshstories@yahoo.com

They will be shared on our website "Our Stories" page either with your name and photo or anonymously. Thank you 

#slingthemesh #mesh #hernia #sui #rectopexy #medicaldevices
A disgraced surgeon whose artificial bowel mesh pr A disgraced surgeon whose artificial bowel mesh procedures injured more than 450 patients has cost the NHS more £20m in compensation payments.

Bristol surgeon Tony Dixon was removed from the medical register last year for serious misconduct, including performing unnecessary surgeries, using surgical mesh to treat bowl complaints without patient's informed consent, and fabricating patient records.

NHS Resolution confirmed it has paid out £19.12m so far to 245 claimants - and there are hundreds more unsettled claims to be dealt with.

Dixon, who pioneered the LVMR (laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy) procedure, has declined to comment.

Check out the blog section of our website to read the full story.

#rectopexy #mesh #anthonydixon #tonydixon #bristolsurgeon
👏 We're relieved that #medicalmisogyny is now reco 👏 We're relieved that #medicalmisogyny is now recognised by UK government as a problem that must be tackled urgently. That recognition is long overdue … BUT we have been talking about this for 11 years. This reel was made FIVE YEARS AGO! 

💬 For over a decade, women affected by the mesh scandal were treated as if we were simply “unlucky patients” instead of victims of a system‑wide failure in women’s healthcare.

💬 For years, I was told in media interviews not to use terms like medical misogyny, #gaslighting, #everydaysexism or the institutional belittling of women.

🛑 And if I did mention them, reporters would often rush to add a line suggesting we’d just had bad luck with “a few individual healthcare professionals” in the mesh story.

📻 This was still happening as recently as last year, during a BBC radio interview.

So to now see this framed finally as a systemic issue?
💥 It is deeply validating.
💥 It confirms what women have been saying all along.

⚖️ We were ignored. We were dismissed. But we were right.

The video is not an easy watch. It includes real testimony from mesh injured women - many of whom have lost their sex lives because #mesh surgery to treat prolapse or bladder leaks has made it too painful to try. Or the plastic mesh material is slicing through their vaginal walls and cuts their partners penis.

Had this happened to men this surgery would have stopped YEARS AGO.

#slingthemesh #mesh #womenshealth #sexualhealth #vaginalmesh #pelvicmesh @vickypattison
🌍 These are the faces of almost 400 members of our 🌍 These are the faces of almost 400 members of our Sling the Mesh community, drawn from a membership of more than 12,500 people worldwide.

Women and men harmed by surgical mesh used to treat prolapse, bladder leaks, hernias, and for reconstruction following breast cancer, as well as cosmetic breast surgery.

None of us fully informed of the risks of having a permanent surgical mesh medical device implanted.

The majority gaslit, belittled and made to feel as if their pain was inconsequential. 

These are not statistics or snapshots. 

They are real people whose lives have been profoundly affected.

This video was created several years ago, and since then some of those pictured are no longer with us 🥲

#slingthemesh #mesh #patientsafety #firstdonoharm #patientsbeforeprofits
💙❤️ We are really pleased to see that our pressure 💙❤️ We are really pleased to see that our pressure exerted yesterday, demanding proper recognition of the mesh‑injured community in the new Women’s Health Strategy, led to Health Minister Karin Smyth acknowledging how our pain was ignored, during her Parliamentary speech today.

➡️ That recognition did not happen by accident, it happened because we refused to let the mesh‑injured community be erased.

📢 During speeches Shadow Health Minister Dr Caroline Johnson says she finds it remarkable the government had the audacity to include pelvic mesh in the report when there has still not been a commitment to compensation despite the Hughes Report published two years ago.

📢 MP Oliver Ryan said: “I am quite ashamed to say that before being elected, I did not know enough about women’s health issues, and in particular the issues with pelvic and vaginal mesh - the wait for treatment and the struggle to be heard- and endometriosis; people with that condition face a wait for diagnosis and a struggle for recognition. These women feel ignored and abandoned by a health service that does not care enough about women’s health issues."

📢 MP Chris Vince said: "I was shocked by the number of women from my constituency of Harlow who came forward to tell me about their terrible experiences of being gaslit, ignored and disrespected, particularly when it came to endometriosis and the pelvic mesh scandal.”

📢➡️ In the new women's Health Strategy mesh centres are mentioned as Action 63 on page 61. 

And while it’s a real disappointment that this wasn’t included in the government's press release or wider media announcements yesterday ... at least in Parliament today we received the acknowledgment that our community deserves.

#slingthemesh #mesh #womenshealthstrategy #medicalmisogyny
💢📢🗯️Today the government launched its refreshed Wo 💢📢🗯️Today the government launched its refreshed Women's Health Strategy which talks of the need to call out medical misogyny, stamp out every day sexism and listen to women's voices in the health system ... and we are disappointed to see no mention of mesh injured women and mesh centres in the government's press announcements and website.

Just a mention in the strategy buried as Action 63.

➡️ Yet it was the bravery of mesh injured women who told their stories and the work of the formidable Baroness Julia Cumberlege in her 2020 First Do No Harm report that made it acceptable to talk of medical misogyny, gaslighting and women's voices being ignored.

🗣️Our community is feeling like our experiences and journeys of unimaginable, avoidable harm are being pushed down the list with just a mention of mesh centres buried in the report.

#slingthemesh #mesh #medicalmisogyny #everydaysexism #gaslighting #hearhervoice #meshcentres #firstdonoharm
🌍✨ Our blog about flimsy science which pushes mesh 🌍✨ Our blog about flimsy science which pushes mesh as a gold standard safe treatment option is now available in 24 languages! ✨🌍

📊🔬Too many people assume that medical implants like mesh are backed by robust, reliable science.

❗📉But the reality is very different. Our blog breaks down how the mesh scientific literature is often flimsy, poorly designed, underpowered, and biased and how that weak evidence base helped fuel a global women’s health scandal 

🗣️🌎⚠️ By translating this blog into 24 languages , the aim is simple:

➡️ To help people everywhere understand what the science says

➡️ To challenge the myth that “published” always means “proven”

➡️ To make sure patients, clinicians, and advocates know how to question the evidence, not just trust it

Science should stand up to scrutiny.
Patients deserve better evidence.
Informed consent depends on it. 💛📚🔗 Link in bio
📖 Read & share: slingthemesh.co.uk blog section of our website

🌐🗺️The Languages:

Chinese mainland

Chinese traditional / Hong Kong and Taiwan

Danish

Dutch

English

French

German

Greek

Gurmukhi (India) and Shahmuki (Pakistan)

Hindi

Italian

Japanese

Lithuanian

Norweigan

Polish

Portugese

Romanian

Slovakian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Thai

Welsh

#MeshAwareness #WomensHealth #BadScience #MedicalEvidence #PatientSafety #HealthJustice #ListenToPatients #GlobalHealth #EvidenceMatters #InformedConsent
🏥🥼Being mesh injured is devastating. Being disbeli 🏥🥼Being mesh injured is devastating. Being disbelieved makes it worse. Below is an account from a member of our support group on the impact of being dismisssed by Drs.

🔖As a mesh injured woman, one of the most damaging things I experienced when seeking full removal of the mesh was inappropriate comments made by medical professionals. 

One Consultant told me that I’d just lost my mojo! When in fact the mesh had been inserted incorrectly and completely restricted my vaginal passage. 

The pain was terrible and I developed fibromyalgia, nerve damage, a pronounced limp and depression after my surgery. 

Some of these inappropriate comments, I feel are a deliberate attempt to minimise the symptoms many women are experiencing. Implying we are taking up valuable resources of the NHS.

Too many women are being treated poorly and men too, simply because they’ve highlighted a problem with mesh. 

I suffered repeated UTI’s one of which affected my left kidney and resulted in an emergency admission to hospital and treatment for sepsis. I honestly thought I was going to die. 

I’m very triggered by reading some of the inappropriate comments made to people suffering debilitating pain. Do not let anyone minimise the pain and suffering you are experiencing. Do not let them off the hook. 

Getting mesh removal surgery is v difficult, I encountered many obstacles over the three year period I was waiting for help. 

I would urge those of you that are seeking removal to take someone with you to your appointments for moral and emotional support. 

This journey is not easy and the damage is compounded by insensitive, inappropriate remarks made by people who should know better. 

I’m not saying all medics are deliberately trying to minimise our pain, but there are people who do a lot of harm by saying totally inappropriate things. 

We are human beings who have been injured and we deserve better. Getting help with the physical issues is difficult. 

A lot of people suffer emotionally and psychologically when they’re struggling with chronic pain. Do not let anyone minimise what you’re dealing with.
🩺🏥A Norfolk man says a routine hernia operation ha 🩺🏥A Norfolk man says a routine hernia operation has left him in constant chronic pain, largely housebound and unable to work.

Andy Wells, 61, has lived with severe complications linked to #hernia #mesh for over three years after multiple failed surgeries. What was meant to restore his health instead triggered a devastating chain of events:

🛑 Ongoing pain
🏠 Housebound
💼 Unable to work
💷 Lost his home and life savings
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Missing out on time with his grandchildren

His wife was forced to give up her job to care for him full‑time.

Like the majority of people on #slingthemesh Andy was never fully warned of the risks and has struggled to access proper support, now seeking specialist treatment outside his local area.

⚠️ His story is part of a wider national concern about the long‑term safety of polypropylene hernia mesh and the ticking time bomb effect of life‑changing complications.

“No one should lose everything because of something that was meant to make them better,” Andy said.

📣 His story can be read on Eastern Daily Press online.

#PatientSafety #SurgicalMesh #InformedConsent #ChronicPain #HerniaRepair
❤️💙 Grateful to MP Caroline Voaden for using Prime ❤️💙 Grateful to MP Caroline Voaden for using Prime Minister’s Questions today to press the Government for a clear timeframe on when mesh‑injured women will finally receive the compensation for which they have waited far too long - as outlined in a 2024 report by Patient Safety Commissioner Henrietta Hughes.

#slingthemesh #mesh #patientsafety #firstdonoharm #hearhervoice #compensationow
😡😔A solicitor has pleaded guilty to taking advanta 😡😔A solicitor has pleaded guilty to taking advantage of vulnerable clients affected by the mesh implant scandal and been struck off for a shocking catalogue of lies and cover‑ups. 

➡️➡️ Absolutely unforgivable behaviour. Read the full story in today's Law Society Gazette online. 

🚫💼 A Tribunal ruled that Darren Hanison’s actions were “deplorable” - including falsifying insurance documents, leaving clients at financial risk, and settling cases for his own gain. 

Hanison, who founded Fortitude Law in 2015, handled claims for clients suffering life‑changing pain from surgical mesh implants. The tribunal found he abused clients’ trust, acted deliberately over years, and caused significant harm. 

Hanison did not appear for the hearing. Instead, he emailed the Tribunal to admit the allegations, including dishonesty, and to acknowledge that he had undermined trust in the profession and fallen below the standards expected of solicitors.

But what now for his former clients? The proved allegations include:

❌ Telling a client she would receive £335,000 in damages without telling her the total settlement was £525,000, with no explanation how costs were broken down

❌ Misleadingly telling defence solicitors in one case that £150,000 was owed to Secure Law for work done

❌ Agreeing settlement offers with no instructions from clients and no input from them about what was acceptable

❌ Retaining £45,000 from one settlement, purportedly on the basis it was a 25% success fee, when there was no basis for this deduction

#darrenhanison #fortitudelaw #slingthemesh #lawsocietygazette #mesh #medicalnegligence #struckoff
💪❤️💙 Handing in our petition to 10 Downing Street 💪❤️💙 Handing in our petition to 10 Downing Street demanding the government give compensation to women avoidably harmed by pelvic mesh - including rectopexy mesh and pelvic bio mesh - as set out in the 2020 First Do No Harm report and the 2024 Hughes Report.

#firstdonoharm #mesh #slingthemesh #patientsafety #cumberlegereview #womenshealth #avoidableharm
❤️💙 Thanks to BBC Northern Ireland for covering th ❤️💙 Thanks to BBC Northern Ireland for covering the story of #slingthemesh handing in a letter to 10 Downing Street urging the English government to lead the way in setting out a timeframe for compensation for women harmed by pelvic mesh - so the devolved nations can follow.

➡️ Susan, of @slingthemesh_ni tells how she walked into the hospital able-bodied and came out on crutches.

Susan is one of thousands of women across the UK who have experienced serious complications after being given a vaginal mesh implant to treat a prolapse and urinary incontinence

She now lives in constant pain and is calling for the government to commit to a deadline for a redress scheme.

Susan is one of several women who travelled to Downing Street to hand a letter to the prime minister asking for "urgent action" to be taken on compensation for those harmed by pelvic mesh implants.

The majority of women were not given fully informed consent on risks of surgical mesh.

Two years ago, the Hughes Report report, called for urgent action on financial redress, but campaigners are still waiting.

#slingthemesh #downingstreet #mesh #firstdonoharm #womenshealth @mumsnet
Today the #slingtgemesh admin team took our fight Today the #slingtgemesh admin team took our fight for compensation to 10 Downing Street 

#firstdonoharm #iwd #womenshealth #patientsafety
💙❤️ 🩺On International Women’s Day, let’s not forge 💙❤️ 🩺On International Women’s Day, let’s not forget the reality of medical misogyny. When I started talking about this issue after launching #slingthemesh in 2015 I was treated as if I was a bit mad; it was just a few unfortunate mesh injured women who faced a wall of medical sexism from a few bad apple doctors. 

😱 I was even warned by some journalists not to talk about it in interviews as it might be seen as defamatory.

➡️ Now here we are with this excellent Mumsnet campaign where a survey shows that half of female patients felt they had been dismissed or ignored because of their sex.

✅Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has admitted, medical misogyny in the NHS is letting women down. 

It is a serious issue and one that needs tackling.

#firstdonoharm #medicalmisogyny #firstdonoharm #sexism #womenshealth #patientsafety #mumsnet
Great to meet with @warinderjussmp today to discus Great to meet with @warinderjussmp today to discuss the advocacy of #SlingTheMesh and the First Do No Harm All Party Parliamentary Group. 

Warinder worked as a a lawyer handling mesh compensation claims before entering politics and has spoken powerfully in debates about women who have been avoidably harmed by surgical mesh. His continued support is greatly appreciated.

#patientsafety #firstdonoharm #slingthemesh
🌸💕 Huge congratulations to MP Sharon Hodgson on he 🌸💕 Huge congratulations to MP Sharon Hodgson on her appointment as Minister for Public Health and Prevention.

Sharon brings exceptional passion and experience to this role, having chaired the First Do No Harm APPG for many years and consistently championing patient safety.

With personal experience of mesh harm due to her mam sadly suffering mesh complications, Sharon has a deep understanding of the healthcare system and the real-life impact of policy decisions.

She will bring a genuinely empathetic, informed voice to the role and be a strong advocate for women’s health.

Sharon has big shoes to fill - MP Ashley Dalton is stepping down to continue her cancer treatment and focus on being MP for West Lancashire.

All the very best to you both.

#slingthemesh #mesh #womenshealth #patientsafety
⌛Five years in the making! Sustained pressure from ⌛Five years in the making! Sustained pressure from Sling The Mesh helped drive the development of a new patient questionnaire with a Leeds University research team to record outcomes before and after pelvic floor surgery - including Bulkamid. 

➡️ We were in Leeds yesterday for one of the final workshops.

🗣️This matters because there has never been a patient‑reported outcome measure (PROM) capturing prolapse and bladder leak surgery outcomes from the patient perspective. For decades, long‑term harm went unrecorded and women’s voices were ignored.

⚠️Yet we are still concerned about whether the metric will be able to accurately capture the outcomes of women's experience. After so much work from researchers and patients- the metric needs to do what it was intended to do

⚠️While vaginal prolapse mesh was banned in 2017 and bladder mesh slings suspended in 2018, abdominal mesh for prolapse is still widely used across the NHS. Our hope is still that this questionnaire helps expose the reality of long‑term complications and closes a major evidence gap- but as it stands, we believe further work is required to improve the metric.

➡️ The funding for this PROM happened because of Sling the Mesh, especially Ruth MacLeod. And many women have now given their time to meetings and workshops to make sure harms that matter to women were included.

⬇️⬇️ Find out more here by visiting the Leeds University APPRAISE web page.

#slingthemesh #mesh #patientsafety #firstdonoharm #womenshealth #appraise #leedsbeckett #pop #sui #bulkamid
💔 Rebecca’s story. What was sold as a “quick fix” 💔 Rebecca’s story. What was sold as a “quick fix” became a life‑altering nightmare. Rebecca went into surgery trusting the system. Instead, mesh complications left her living with devastating consequences that affected her whole family. 💔

➡️ The impact has been so severe that her autistic daughter has needed to move into an assisted care living facility as Rebecca no longer had the strength to support her, a reality no parent should ever be forced to face.

➡️This is the hidden cost of mesh harm: chronic pain, lost independence, and families pushed to breaking point. Rebecca’s courage in speaking out is for every woman who was dismissed, disbelieved, or told this was “normal”. It isn’t.

📢The government must commit to a compensation scheme for women harmed by pelvic mesh as outlined in the 2024 Hughes Report.

📢Regulators, NHS and Government must listen.

📢 The system must believe women.

📢And we must make sure scandals like this never happens again. ✊

You can read Rebecca's story online in the Eastern Daily Press - the newspaper I trained with back in 1990 where wonderful former work colleagues support the campaign.

#MeshInjury #ListenToWomen #PatientSafety #MedicalHarm #WomenDeserveBetter #EndTheMeshScandal #ChronicPain #JusticeForPatients #slingthemesh #hearhervoice #firstdonoharm
❤️💙I was pleased to be invited to speak at the All ❤️💙I was pleased to be invited to speak at the All Party Parliamentary Group into PIP breast implants to share insights into the many regulatory and oversight failings of medical devices which led to the surgical mesh scandal - sadly these failings are the same issues that led to the PIP breast implant scandal.

➡️ The UK regulator MHRA failed to spot trends of harm, there were no timely warnings, the scientific literature failed to pick up new and unexpected complications from implant materials and women were ignored, gaslit and denied proper pathways of care. 

➡️Moreover, medical devices have historically been approved on a flawed system of equivalence - which means they’re rubber stamped through without any clinical evidence.

😱Approval of medical devices has historically been so weak that a household kitchen kettle has better regulatory checks than a permanently implanted medical device.

It was great to meet with supportive politicians and the Scottish Patient Safety Commissioner. Their commitment to standing with patients and driving meaningful change is something we are extremely grateful for.

#slingthemesh #patientsafety
💙❤️We are grateful to MP Sarah Green who chaired t 💙❤️We are grateful to MP Sarah Green who chaired this month's Westminster debate urgently calling for compensation for women harmed by pelvic #mesh. Her opening speech is published in @parliamentmagazine 

Two years ago the Patient Safety Commissioner, Professor Henrietta Hughes, published her report, outlining options for redress for the 30,000 – predominantly women and children – harmed by both sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. Four years before that, Baroness Cumberlege’s landmark First Do No Harm review laid out the devastating impact of avoidable medical harm on those impacted. Yet, there has still been no official government response to the Hughes Report, and no sign of a redress scheme.

Professor Hughes did not independently decide to carry out this work. She was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care in late 2022 to explore how redress would be delivered. In the foreword of her report she highlighted that commissioning such work would raise expectations, and that it would be “profoundly unfair” to do so if there was no intention of delivering redress to victims.

Members of Parliament have been asking for progress updates ever since the report was launched. In October last year, Professor Hughes used her statutory powers for the first time to ask for more detailed answers from the Department of Health. We now know that there have been meetings and roundtables and briefings, but still no progress on redress.

30,000 women and children have been harmed through no fault of their own from valproate and pelvic mesh. The statistics are stark: 85% report not being able to work, 73% report that their finances have suffered as a result and 91% report that their mental health and wellbeing have been adversely affected.

Behind each of these statistics is a story of suffering. 

The current system is failing these women, children and families. They were injured by a healthcare system meant to protect them and their lives were left permanently altered. Delay deepens injustice – the Government must now commit to redress.

#slingthemesh
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