Ministers ‘will not be forgiven’ if they fail to act over pelvic mesh scandal

Ministers will not be forgiven if they fail to act over a series of health scandals, the author of a damning report warned yesterday.

Tens of thousands of women and children suffered catastrophic harm because of an ‘unresponsive and defensive’ healthcare system, it found.

Baroness Cumberlege, who led the inquiry into pelvic mesh implants, a pregnancy test drug and an epilepsy treatment, said these patients had already waited ‘too long’ to be heard.

Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘I want to issue a full apology to those who’ve suffered and their families, for the frustration, for the time that it’s taken to get their voices heard. 

‘And now their voices have been heard, it’s very important that we learn from this report.’

The report said countless lives had been ruined by the pain and suffering caused by three avoidable health disasters.

Baroness Cumberlege, a former Tory health minister, called for an urgent shake-up to rid the NHS of an ‘arrogant and dismissive culture’, which resulted in many doctors writing off patients’ crippling symptoms as ‘women’s problems’.

Unveiling the 277-page report yesterday, she warned the Government that these mistakes must not be repeated and urged ministers to establish a task force to implement the ‘radical and wide-ranging’ recommendations.

‘I have to say, if this government and the health care system ignores our review and another medication and medical device damages people, to the extent that we have witnessed, they will, and should not be forgiven,’ she said.

Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘I want to issue a full apology to those who’ve suffered and their families, for the frustration, for the time that it’s taken to get their voices heard’

The review into people harmed by three products – pelvic mesh implants, hormone pregnancy test drug Primodos and epilepsy drug sodium valproate – found mistakes spanning decades.

The NHS, private health providers, manufacturers and Government regulators were all criticised for failing to listen to patients or spot the signs when things went drastically wrong. 

The review called for measures including the appointment of an independent safety commissioner, an overhaul of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and compensation for victims.

The expert panel, appointed by the then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, spent two years listening to the ‘harrowing accounts’ of more than 700 families across the UK.

Baroness Cumberlege condemned manufacturers, regulators and surgeons for not doing enough to trace those who have been affected by mesh, something the Daily Mail’s Good Health team has spent almost a decade campaigning for.

Excruciating pain means that even washing dishes leaves me in tears 

Lisa Morland, 49, explains how excruciating pain leaves her in tears while carrying out simple household tasks

Once they were the simplest of everyday chores for Lisa Morland.

But these days the physical exertion of cooking a family meal or washing the dishes is enough to leave her in tears.

Mrs Morland wishes she had been told about the potential long-term implications of the pelvic mesh before she had it fitted in 2015.

The customer service adviser, 49, from Newcastle upon Tyne, had the operation for stress urinary incontinence, which is caused by physical movements such as laughing, coughing or heavy lifting.

She did not suffer any side effects for the first year after the surgery. But she then struggled with constipation, issues with urinating, stomach pains and pain around her hips and back.

‘I am now finding it very difficult to walk – walking for 20 minutes even just to do a small shop leads to excruciating pain which reduces me to tears,’ she said. ‘Normal every day tasks like cooking a family meal, ironing, hoovering or washing dishes has the same impact.’

Mrs Morland is now hoping to have the mesh removed.

She added: ‘I could have been given the truth, all of the facts about what could go wrong – that from 11 years prior to my surgery the manufacturers knew this mesh could shrink, erode, cause more damage than good.’