No action from ministers, one year after vaginal mesh scandal inquiry

Ministers have been criticised for failing to take action a year on from a major inquiry that exposed avoidable harm to tens of thousands of women and babies.

Campaigners, families and lawyers have called on new health secretary Sajid Javid to intervene now and implement recommendations made by the Cumberlege Inquiry, which examined the use of vaginal mesh, the epilepsy drug sodium valproate and the hormone pregnancy test Primodos.

Publishing her findings last year, Baroness Julia Cumberlege said there had been widespread failures in the health system, with women’s concerns ignored and patients and babies still being put at risk.

MPs will debate the review on Thursday with a motion brought by Emma Hardy MP, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Surgical Mesh Implants.

The debate is calling for all the recommendations to be implemented without delay, including financial redress for women and calls for a retrospective audit of mesh to work out the number of women suffering.

The Cumberlege review suggests contacting all women who had mesh in 2010 to see how they are in 2021.

Ms Hardy said: “Women deserve better than the government’s refusal to implement the Baroness Cumberlege recommendations. The recommendations will not only make life better for those living with mesh complications, but they will also improve patient safety for everyone in the future.”

The inquiry blamed a “disjointed, siloed, unresponsive and defensive” system.

About 20,000 babies could have been left disabled by sodium valproate, while a 2018 audit for the NHS showed there were more than 2,600 surgeries to remove mesh from women since 2008.

The Cumberlege review called for changes in the way medical devices were regulated and more transparency over the financial interests of doctors. It also recommended the creation of a legal redress agency for those harmed by medical devices to avoid patients having to bring lengthy, adversarial clinical negligence claims.

Since the inquiry was published, the government has apologised to women but taken only limited steps. It has not yet responded to seven key recommendations.

The government has established a new role of a patient safety commissioner, but this has yet to be filled and is still out for consultation.

A law firm representing women harmed by the use of sodium valproate while pregnant has now written to the health secretary urging him to act.

Susan Cole was prescribed the drug in 1983 and had a daughter, Hannah, in 2000. Hannah has since been diagnosed with fetal valproate syndrome.

She said: “Since 1973, this drug was known to be high risk, and yet neurologists failed to fully inform women with epilepsy of the risks.

“It is now one year after the publication of the excellent First Do No Harm report, and yet we are still waiting to see how the government will implement the recommendations. Our families can’t wait until the government fixes the NHS or medicines regulation – we need and deserve redress now so that we can move forward with autonomy and with dignity.”

Kath Sansom, the founder of campaign group Sling The Mesh, which has 9,000 members, said: “Mesh for stress incontinence was suspended in 2018, and we believe it should not be brought back until the audit is carried out and we know the true scale of complications.”

The Independent has approached the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.