SF Calls For Full Public Inquiry Into Dangers On Use Of Mesh Implants

Sinn Féin has called for a full public inquiry into the facts surrounding the dangers posed by the use of surgical mesh implants.

Speaking today, 09 May, Sinn Féin MLA Órlaithí Flynn made the call following the publication of an audit which revealed most surgeons in NI failed to comply with guidelines on how many vaginal mesh operations they should perform each year.

The West Belfast MLA also strongly criticised the limited extent of the audit, which examined 340 patients who had the procedure carried out in 2013.

Ms Flynn said the recommendations emerging as the result of the audit are "shameful in themselves because they suggest a litany of poor care, practitioners without appropriate training, a lack of appropriate post-operative care, poor data collection and no long term monitoring of outcomes".

"Worse still, despite a recent report by the European Committee on Emerging Health risks which found data collection on mesh surgery outcomes was so poor that informed consent was not possible, the recommendations are still characterising the problem as the need for a 'one to one' discussion," she said.

"We feared the Ashe Audit was commissioned primarily as a distraction to undermine the call for a public inquiry and these fears have not been dispelled by its publication."

(LM/MH)