‘Absolute disgrace!’ Tory slams ‘lastminute.com’ Government for FINALLY responding to her report

The Government was today branded a ‘disgrace’ for taking too long to respond to a review into three separate health scandals which harmed thousands of women and children.

A Department of Health and Social Care-commissioned report in 2020 delved into the impacts of sodium valproate — an epilepsy drug that has left British babies with birth defects or special needs.

Its scope also included women given vaginal mesh for incontinence — which left some wheelchair-bound and in crippling pain — and pregnancy test drug Primodos.

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review set out nine recommendations to respond to the scandals, including how to compensate victims.

But the DHSC only published its latest update on the review at 6pm last night — five months after it was due in July this year.

Just the second official response to the report, the Government update listed the steps taken to meet the recommendations — just two of which have been completed.

Baroness Julia Cumberlege, who chaired the original review, told MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee the one-and-a-half year wait since the last update was ‘not good enough’.

Asked about the Government’s response time, Baroness Cumberlege said: ‘This is a disgrace. 

‘One of the things I wanted to say about the Department [of Health and Social Care] is I think they can be very diligent, they can be very, very thorough.

‘But they are very, very slow. 

‘All this lastminute.com is just not good enough in running our country and running our health service.’

The report’s recommendations included issuing an apology to the families affected by vaginal mesh, sodium valproate and Primodos.

Vaginal mesh is net-like polypropylene material that is inserted into the vaginal wall to act as a scaffold to support organs such as the bladder and treat incontinence.

But it led to a catalogue of health problems in thousands of women, including sexual dysfunction and damage to the vaginal wall, and been branded ‘barbaric’ by campaigners.

Sodium valproate is an epilepsy medicine that can increase the risk of a child being born with autism or learning difficulties by up to four times when taken during pregnancy.

Britain’s first ever death linked to the drug was recorded by a coroner last week, after Jake Aldcroft, from Droylsden, near Manchester, died from fatal brain damage.

Primodos, a pregnancy test introduced in the 1950s, is suspected to have caused miscarriages and brain damage, heart defects and shortened limbs in children – a claim disputed by its manufacturer. 

Baroness Cumberlege said the thousands of patients who did voice concerns were simply dismissed. 

No10 issued an apology on behalf of the health system on July 9, 2020, a day after the review was released. 

Baroness Cumberlege’s 277-page document also recommended appointing a Patient Safety Commissioner to to ‘champion the value of listening to patients’ in discussions around medicine and medical device safety. 

This was adopted by the Government this July, with Dr Henrietta Hughes beginning her role in September.

However, the update issued last night revealed more work still needs to be done to meet two of the other recommendations that were accepted in full.

The first was the opening of specialist centres to provide treatment, care and advice for people affected by the damaging medical treatments.

Nine specialist mesh centres have now been set up across England, although officials admit there are still issues with access. 

Speaking at the same committee, Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Strategy Maria Caulfield said patients have struggled to get what they need from the centres.

No centres have been set up for those affected by sodium valproate or Primodos.

Likewise, the recommendation to ensure the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) engages better with patients is still in progress.

A DHSC spokesperson said: ‘The MHRA has embarked upon an ambitious organisation-wide transformation to ensure it becomes a progressive and responsive patient-focused regulator of medical products.

‘It has been establishing a new organisational structure that improves how it listens and responds to patients and the public, developing a more responsive system for reporting adverse incidents, and strengthening the evidence to support timely and robust decisions that protect patient safety.’

And the update confirmed No10 has doubled down on denying two of the recommendations in the report. 

These include a new independent Redress Agency to compensate women and families affected by the drugs.

Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Strategy Maria Caulfield admitted not all the recommendations of the report have been completed

Meanwhile, the Government also rejected the recommendation to pay care costs to affected victims who are eligible to claim. 

Ms Caulfield said she is ‘willing to look at the idea’ but refused to commit to any sort of new compensation scheme.

The move was slammed as ‘outrageous’ by devastated mothers whose children were affected by sodium valproate.

Emma Murphy, co-founder of the Independent Foetal Anti-Convulsant Trust (In-FACT) campaign, said a separate agency for compensation is needed because claiming clinical negligence against the NHS has not worked for affected families.

Five of her children were born with autism and birth defects including scoliosis and cerebral palsy after she was prescribed the drug without being warned of its risks.

Speaking at the committee, she said: ‘This was caused by poor regulation and it has continued for 50 years.

‘We have tried the route of clinical negligence against the NHS and that has failed.

‘To put these parents — to even suggest — is an insult and continues to be an insult to our families.’

In other related news…

Investigation reveals mesh victims are still being betrayed two years after excoriating official inquiry

Study warns pregnant women who take common epilepsy drugs up to four times as likely to have child with autism or learning disabilities 

Mothers reveal their ‘guilt’ after taking ‘poisonous’ epilepsy drug during pregnancy that left their children with issues such as deafness and autism