Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the vaginal mesh implants scandal, if he will take steps to ensure that the establishment of specialist treatment centres are multidisciplinary in order to permit an holistic approach to treatment and to avoid multiple referrals by GPs to (a) neurology, (b) orthopaedic, (c) rheumatology, (d) urology, and (e) other specialists lacking mesh-specific skills; and if he will ensure that NHS personnel previously involved in denying the harmful effects of vaginal mesh implants are excluded from staffing those remedial treatment centres.

NHS England is assessing bids from National Health Service providers to be specialist centres providing treatment for women with complications of mesh inserted for urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, every effort is now being made to finalise this quickly and stakeholders will be kept up to date with progress.

The service specification requires that providers of complex mesh services must use the trust appraisal system to ensure surgeons are appropriately trained and current in their practice; adhere to clinical guidance; comply with national data requirements; and report complications. Clear documented evidence demonstrating competency to perform complex vaginal mesh removal surgery for all surgical members of the multidisciplinary team is also required.