Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting a retrospective audit of ventral mesh rectopexy to take account of its omission from the Government's audit into recovery after vaginal mesh surgery.

NHS Digital published an audit on 17 April 2018, titled ‘Retrospective Review of Surgery for Urogynaecological Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence using Tape or Mesh’. An executive summary of the report is attached.

The audit reviews Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data. HES data contains details of all admissions, outpatient appointments and accident and emergency attendances at National Health Service hospitals in England. It includes private patients treated in NHS hospitals, patients who were resident outside of England and care delivered by treatment centres, including those in the independent sector, funded by the NHS.

The Department is engaged in ongoing dialogue with arm’s length bodies to assess how it can continue to build on the evidence base for surgical mesh. This includes discussion of areas of concern beyond urogynaecological mesh – i.e. mesh used in surgical procedures to treat rectal prolapse.