Chamber and committees

Neither Scottish Government Ministers nor officials have met with, or contacted, manufacturers in relation to mesh devices.

Until the Independent Review’s recommendations are published it is not possible to comment on them. In general terms, clinical research in Scotland is governed by the Scottish Executive Health Department Research Governance Framework for Health and Community Care, published in 2006. The RGF sets exacting and well established standards around the ethics, science, patient care, information, health and safety, finance and quality research culture for clinical research studies. It also details the responsibilities and accountabilities of key people and organisations involved in research studies to ensure robust governance arrangements are in place to assure these standards are maintained. The full document is available from the Scottish Government website.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Research/by-topic/health-community-care/chief-scientist-office/6864/6933.

The Chair of the Independent Review has confirmed that the clinician members of the review met twice; firstly in October 2016 (Edinburgh), and subsequently in January 2017 (Glasgow). In addition, the clinician members held a teleconference in January 2017. The nature of these meetings was to agree the content of the chapter of the final report for which the clinicians were responsible, and separate minutes were not therefore taken.

The Chair of the Review also held teleconferences with both the Scottish Mesh Survivors members and with the other patient representative in January 2017. These were informal discussions and were not minuted.

The Independent Review has awaited the publication of several key studies that it wished to consider as part of its deliberations. These were published at the very end of last year, and the Review aims to issue its final report this spring.

The Independent Review has met three times since the publication of the interim report: March 2016, January 2017 and March 2017.

I understand that attempts have been made to make the Review’s final report as accessible as possible. However, as with any report of this kind, it will contain necessarily detailed, in-depth analysis of medical evidence that is, by its very nature, complex. An Expert Group is tasked with taking forward the recommendations of the Review. In response to previous recommendations it produced a patient-centred information and consent leaflet, and it will be expected to continue to take a patient-friendly approach in relation to the Review’s final recommendations.

Ministers and government officials have taken great care to allow the Review to take an independent view on the matter, and the members’ range of experiences and expertise was intended to ensure that a comprehensive examination of the situation was possible. This is a complex, technical area and the Scottish Government has given the Review wide latitude to prepare the report without interference from Government.

Options for the treatment of both stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse are discussed in the Independent Review’s interim report.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/10/8485/4.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-07740 on 17 March 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

NHS National Services Scotland confirms that a total of six incidents involving abdominal hernia repair mesh have been reported since 1994.