Women and children injured by a healthcare system meant to protect them, deserve justice, not dither and endless delay

It is hard to hear a woman tell you of her anguish that she cannot be intimate with the love of her life. But this is the reality for one of the many women I have spoken to who have been harmed by pelvic mesh. The heartbreaking realities for families harmed by Sodium Valproate are no less difficult to hear.

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 the victims. Yet, there has still been no official government response to the Hughes Report, and no sign of a redress scheme.

It is worth noting that 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. Women forced to give up their jobs due to the daily pain caused by mesh implants. Valproate families who, on top of the physical effects of the harm, face PIP reassessments every few years and the ordeal of dealing with CAMHS. They also have to explain what Foetal Valproate Spectrum Disorder is to the many clinicians they encounter, because it isn’t widely understood.

I was introduced to this injustice by my constituent, Carol, who underwent surgery to treat pelvic organ prolapse. A procedure that was meant to improve her quality of life instead left her with a serious autoimmune condition and constant pain.

Her prognosis was bleak and she was told she must have the mesh removed. Treatment for the removal of mesh was not available to her on the NHS. Through determination, medical knowledge and her own personal resources, Carol travelled to the United States for private treatment and became the first person in England to be mesh-free.

Following her mesh-removal procedure, Carol attempted to pursue clinical negligence claims against the surgeons that harmed her. However, multiple law firms declined to act for her as the same surgeons were advising them on other mesh cases.

In one case, the surgeon who caused Carol’s life-changing harm served as an expert witness in another mesh case. A judge later found that this surgeon selectively chose evidence in support of the defence. The surgeon failed to provide balanced evidence and ultimately failed in their duty to the court, a finding that is on the record. Conflicts of interest such as these and the closing of ranks amongst professionals remains a structural barrier to justice for victims.

This is precisely why the Hughes Report called for a redress scheme that provides accountability, without forcing victims through an expensive legal system that often will retraumatise them. It made clear that the current clinical negligence system fails patients and is financially inefficient.

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 for these victims.