Sling The Mesh in the news: 2020

A paper published in Hernia says that without long-term follow-up, the majority of hernia mesh complications are missed, making it look like it is a good treatment option, when in fact patients become more at risk of developing complications as each year passes. Read the full study

The Sling The Mesh Survey 2020 reveals a long list of symptoms suffered by patients after having a mesh implant. The top five most common complications experienced were pain walking, urinary urgency, pain sitting, severe fatigue and IBS bloating. These were followed by chronic hip and leg pain, discomfort during sex, brain fog, urinary frequency and anxiety.

The Medicines and Medical Devices Bill has its second reading in the House of Lords. Baroness Cumberlege talks on the need to step up patient safety and warns the Government against ignoring her report. Hansard

Healthwatch Newsletter says a worrying huge amount of unreported medical device trials are taking place in the UK that are putting at patients of risk of harm.

A webinar for surgeons from the Middle East and North Africa discussed how to treat prolapse and stress urinary incontinence:

American firm Deep Blue get clearance for new hernia mesh with huge anchors. Tech Wire

While developed nations and their media are realising mesh is a cash cow with flawed scientific evidence to support its use, manufacturers are pushing its products in Africa, Japan, India, China and the Middle East. UnCancelled

The mesh scandal shows that the medical industry is darker than the tobacco industry. Big Issue North, August 2020

In a guest blog for Patient Safety Learning, Sarah Graham, founder of female health blog Hysterical Women, talks about gender bias within healthcare. Sarah draws on research, anecdotal evidence and the Cumberlege report to highlight how widespread mistreatment of women can have a negative impact on their safety as a patient.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information publishes “Implantable Medical Devices in Canada: Insights into High-Volume Procedures and Associated Costs”, which reveals vaginal mesh use is down by a third.

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review published its recommendations. “First Do No Harm” set out nine major recommendations to bring much-needed help and support to those who have suffered as a result of these interventions, and to reduce the risk of avoidable harm from medicines and medical devices in the future. Read more

Industry responses:

• Joint statement from the British Society of Urogynaecology, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
• PelvicRoar
• Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership
• Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
• General Medical Council
• British Association of Urological Surgeons
• Royal College of Surgeons of England
• Pelvic Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy

The recommendations received coverage across the UK and internationally:

• The front page of The Independent (pictured above) describes the inquiry’s damning verdict on the health system’s handling of patients who were unharmed in a series of unsafe treament scandals.
• BMJ blog by Stephen Bradley, Erick Turner and Kath Sansom on how research must be made better. Shoddy practices and poor evidence must go because the end result is patients suffering needlessly. It is betrayal of public trust. We know enough about the problems in research to do something about it.
• Health Services Journal Health Check podcast on why the Baroness Cumberlege “First Do No Harm” report is being buried:
  
  HSJ Health Check · Why the Cumberlege review is being buried
• The BAUS Podcast discusses what the scathing Cumberledge Report means for surgeons. Listen to the podcast
• Socialist Worker writes: “The review found evidence of conflicts of interest and financial links between the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare services.” Problems uncovered may only be the tip of the iceberg. “The issue is not one of a single or a few rogue medical practitioners, or differences in regional practice. It is system-wide. And, while we have looked in detail at only three interventions, we have heard nothing that would lead us to believe that things are different for other surgical procedures and devices or other medications.”
• Apology is long overdue for women harmed from three healthcare treatments. London Evening Standard
• Three women’s health treatments could have avoided harm if there were proper systems in place to log issues before they got out of hand. Metro
• Baroness Cumberlge report hits out with anger at failings, especially by the MHRA. But will vaginal mesh campaigners be betrayed again if these recommendations are not put into place? Mail Online
• “Whatever comes next in the vaginal mesh scandal, let’s hope that it spells the end of the ‘shut up and put up’ medical culture when it comes to female healthcare” – Barbara Ellen, Observer columnist. The Guardian
• Pelvic mesh scandal is what happens when men with power ignore women: public policy journalist Richard Vize says “investigation into decades of failure batters the reputation of the NHS, professional bodies, regulators, manufacturers, private providers and policymakers”. The Guardian
• ‘A pelvic mesh implant ruined my life – yet doctors dismissed me as a hysterical woman’: As report called on the Government to apologise to women over healthcare failings, Carole Davies described the constant pain she lives with. The Telegraph
• Patients explain what it is like to live with constant pain as review “finally listened to women”. Huffington Post
• Why didn’t the Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Paediatrics and Royal College of Physicians get involved with the Cumberlege report? Independent
• We faced a wall of denial: Jackie Harvey welcomes review County Down Newsletter
• “It is clear the medical establishment is deeply entrenched in a culture of misogyny”. Swindon Advertiser
• ‘Crippling’ implant that causes ‘burning pain’ under review. Cambridge News
• “I’ve campaigned for years to ‘sling the mesh’. Finally, women like me can feel vindicated” – Kath Sansom talks about the campaign with The Telegraph
• Matt Hancock apologises to women affected by three health scandals. Mail Online
• Nadine Dorries apologises to women injured by mesh, Primodos and sodium valproate. BBC News
• Lives ruined as damage viewed as ‘women’s problems’. BBC News
• NHS must apologise for dismissing pelvic mesh and anti-epilepsy drug patients’ suffering, review finds. Sky News
• Vaginal mesh sufferer details decades of discomfort. Sky News
• Patients ‘deserve apology’ for ‘acute suffering’ from use of pelvic mesh. i
• Government told to apologise to mesh injured women. BBC Wales
• Deeside woman Maxine Cooper – left disabled from complications arising from a surgical mesh implant – reacts to findings of a damning review that found she could have been spared the life-changing complications from the surgery. Teeside Leader
• Thousands could have been spared mesh complications – review. Express & Star
• Yvonne McIntosh, of County Antrim, who finally had pelvic mesh removed after several failed attempts, said the hardest part was feeling no-one believed her pain. BBC Northern Ireland
• The pelvic mesh scandal makes it clear: doctors must declare any funding – GP Margaret McCartney. The Guardian
• A Cambridgeshire mum who spearheaded the campaign for an inquiry into the use of pelvic mesh implants says she welcomes today’s report which says the scandal was entirely avoidable. ITV Anglia
• Apologies must be given to women who were dismissed after suffering in three health scandals. Sky News
• Kath Sansom writes on the mesh implant scandal. Sky News
• Denial of women’s concerns contributed to decades of medical scandals, says inquiry. The Guardian
• “…our report makes for uncomfortable reading” – patient failings exposed in pelvic mesh implant review. Cambs Times
• Government told to apologise over implant ‘scandal’ thanks to regional journalist. HoldtheFrontPage
• Suffering was entirely avoidable. Eastern Daily Press
• A generation of women betrayed by three medical procedures – mesh, Primodos and sodium valproate. Mail Online
• Women with vaginal mesh complications and pain told they were imagining it. Mail Online
• Good Health TV interview with Baroness Julia Cumberlege and Kath Sansom. Recommendations must be implemented with urgency:

Elsewhere in July…

Mesh forced teacher into early retirement. Slough and South Bucks Advertiser

Japanese surgeons say they don’t need to adhere to international warnings on mesh and that the negative publicity on prolapse mesh is unreasonable. International Urogynecological Association Newsletter

Pilates teacher gives harrowing account of how ‘barbaric’ surgical mesh has affected her life, including how the pain has left her sometimes needing to use a walker. Banbury Guardian

The ticking time bomb inside women: how mesh leaves women in exrutiating pain and yet so many medics still deny it is an issue. South West Londoner

MP Sharon Hodgson reveals how a mesh implant ruined her mum’s life. Sunderland Echo

Mum of three rushed into emergency surgery due to mesh implant hell. Metro

Survey by Sling The Mesh reveals the most common complications of mesh surgery. Woman and Home

‘It felt like they washed their hands of me’, says mother who had mesh surgery. Independent

Patients left in pain for decades by three women’s health scandals. The Times

Devon’s vaginal mesh victims anxiously await outcome of government review. Devon Live

UK women come together to stop the use of surgical mesh in treating gynecological problems after crippling effects found. The Science Times

Women whose lives have been irreversibly damaged by mesh spoke ahead of the independent review to say mesh implants must be banned forever. Daily Mail

TVT pioneer on the early days of mesh use in the UK

Thousands of women left maimed from vaginal mesh. Warrington Guardian

Mesh implants: women launch claims against NHS trusts and surgeons for failing to warn of risks. The BMJ

Two days after the MHRA issues new guidance saying mesh for incontinence is safe to use because it has a CE mark, its report is taken down. The web link said a registry would be set up to log mesh complications, but our understanding was that this would not be possible to link into the MHRA reports, which, in our opinion, renders it useless. Surgeons have had since 1997 to do this, but never bothered. In addition, the MHRA has taken its flawed York Report offline, which was relied on to claim mesh risk was only between 1% and 3%

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) Review announces its findings will be published on July 8, 2020.

Women who have already been waiting 18 months for mesh removal will have at least six more months to wait because of COVID-19. Medical Plastics News

Scottish women will be offered £1,000 for wellbeing. It is not compensation for any perceived wrongdoing by the NHS. BBC

What is vaginal mesh and what has been said about the medical scandal? Woman and Home magazine (everything you need to know about the vaginal mesh implant scandal).

A group of Canadian women who suffered ill-effects from implantation of transvaginal mesh will receive a total of $21.5 million in compensation, court records show. CTV News

The heartbreaking stories of the Devon women whose lives were ruined by vaginal mesh surgery. Devon Live

London Mayoral candidate Sue Black forced to stand down after suffering mesh complications. Metro and The Guardian

In California, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $344 million for its misleading marketing of mesh products:

• Bloomberg report
• Medical Plastics News report
• Court paperwork can be read here. Go to pages 10-13 for admissions by Johnson & Johnson on how releasing information on loss of sex life “would kill us”, that it didn’t want to release information on mesh removal for fear of “digging own grave”, and avoided using databases to capture complications so the US Food and Drug Administration didn’t learn of negative outcomes that would make their products less appealing as those of competitors who were not using databases either.

The BBC Victoria Derbyshire show reports on how hernia mesh has little or no clinical evidence. In response, the Royal College of Surgeons says 1 in 10 people suffer complications following an inguinal hernia mesh repair. Watch the full BBC Victoria Derbyshire show clip:

Hernia repair mesh implants ‘do not have adequate clinical evidence’. AOL

• Response from the Royal College of Surgeons of England

Women reveal their stories as independent investigation called for into vaginal mesh surgery injuries at Torbay hospital. Devon Live

Mum who attempted suicide over mesh implant hell ‘feels like a suffragette’. Metro