Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to undertake an audit on mesh use in relation to (1) private patients, (2) outpatients, and (3) patients receiving care from GPs.

NHS Digital published an audit on 17 April 2018 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.

Due to the importance of the issue, I have asked the Chief Medical Officer to seek the views of relevant NHS bodies, surgical societies, and patient groups on the implications of the statistics, and to report back within a month. This will allow us to engage in thoughtful, considered debate about the next steps we take. The Government is open to the possibility of undertaking further analyses, such as other mesh procedures where they have the potential to provide helpful insights.

In February 2018, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care committed £1.1 million to the development of a prospective national clinical audit (registry). As part of the development, the Department will be interested in learning from the gaps in the data collected so far; this is likely to involve a discussion with stakeholders on how to capture experience in general practice.