Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of NHS provision for complex mesh removal surgery; and what steps he is taking to ensure patients can access specialists with required expertise.

There are nine specialist mesh centres in operation across England, ensuring that women in every region with complications of mesh inserted for urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse get the right support. Each mesh centre is led by a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to ensure patients get access to the specialist care and treatment that they need, including pain management.

The specialised services for service users with complications of mesh inserted for urinary incontinence, vaginal, or internal and external rectal prolapse specification published by NHS England sets out the requirement for an MDT approach to mesh services and suggests membership could include a psychologist. The specification also details that psychology services should be co-located or available to the mesh MDT.

The Department has commissioned, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, a £1.56 million study to develop patient reported outcome measures (PROM) for prolapse, incontinence, and mesh complication surgery. Longer term, the PROM will be integrated into the pelvic floor registry which monitors and improves the safety of mesh patients. It records the surgical mesh implants, and related medical devices, given to patients, and the organisations and surgeons that have carried out the procedures.