A Scottish gynaecologist has told a select committee he stopped using the mesh nine years ago and it was a sound decision. File pic Photo: 123RF
The Ministry of Health is considering whether to suspend the use of surgical mesh to treat urinary incontinence.
The mesh has been controversial since hundreds of women suffered irreversible complications that left them with severe or chronic pain.
The Health Select Committee was today hearing evidence for a petition to suspend vaginal use of the mesh to treat incontinence.
The ministry's chief medical officer Joe Bourne told members it was investigating a pause through its Mesh Round Table but any decision would need to carefully weigh up the pros and cons.
"Stress urinary incontinence is something that does affect a large number of women and if we were to pause mesh we really want to ensure that we have a range of alternatives," he said.
The roundtable was looking at what "levers" it could use if it decided a pause was the best option to ensure patient safety because there were no existing laws or regulations, he said.
"Even if there was operational agreement between public and private hospitals to a pause, we're unlikely to be able to enforce that," Bourne said.
In 2018, Medsafe banned several mesh products from use in New Zealand but some victims' advocates are pushing for a full ban.
Sally Walker has presented the petition asking for a suspension of vaginally inserted mesh sling - something the UK had already done.
A Scottish gynaecologist and professor, Wael Agur, told the committee his hospital stopped using the mesh nine years ago and it was going well.
One of the main alternative surgeries took longer than mesh surgery but the hospital had become more efficient as its experience increased, he said.
They had not seen any patients who needed the mesh over other treatments, he said.
There had been a greater push to address some of the problems that could make incontinence worse, like obesity, he said.
Agur said he used to use mesh all the time in the early 2000s but slowly changed his mind after reading the evidence of the harm it could do.
Bourne told the committee another difficulty when considering change was the lack of data on how often harm was caused by mesh.
That was partly because many of the procedures were done in private hospitals.
Work was continuing to ensure surgeons earned credentials before they could do complex mesh surgery, and creating a registry of mesh complications, he said.