Women 'dismissed' by doctors over mesh and epilepsy drug fears 'deserve apology'

Image: Leah Farrell via RollingNews.ie Image: Leah Farrell via RollingNews.ie WOMEN WERE “DISMISSED, overlooked and ignored for far too long”, a new UK report into harmful side effects from medicines and medical devices has found.

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review today published its recommendations for wide-ranging and radical improvement across the UK health system. The report titled ‘First Do No Harm’ is the outcome of a non-statutory inquiry into pelvic mesh treatment, sodium valproate which is a drug used to treat epilepsy , and a hormone pregnancy test drug used up to the late 1970s.

Thousands of women globally, including hundreds in Ireland, have reported painful complications after these surgeries. In some cases, the device, which is made from a type of plastic, has broken up and embedded itself in the tissue and organs around it. The UK report concluded that “it has taken far too long for serious action to be taken to reduce the number of women who take sodium valproate during pregnancy while unaware of the risk”.

“It’s abundantly clear from the scandals we’ve had over the past number of years that the patient’s voice isn’t being heard,” added Power.One of the main recommendations of the report is that the UK Government “immediately issues a fulsome apology on behalf of the healthcare system to the families affected”.

The guilt that parents felt was referred to a number of times in the report. Keely said until a State apology is issued parents will continue to feel it’s their fault. Prior to the 2020 general election, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party both committed to the holding of an inquiry, according to OACS Ireland.

This is related to a major proposed investigation by our colleagues noteworthy_ie. They want to find out why Irish women were not told for decades about an epilepsy drug, sodium valproate, that causes birth defects. Help support this work:

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