A group supporting people with surgical mesh problems says more and more treatment injuries are happening based on the number of claims being filed.
Surgery Photo: 123RF
According to official information obtained by the group Mesh Down Under, the Accident Compensation Corporation made 281 claim decisions between 2014 and 2016, 228 of which were accepted for cover.
The historical claims information shows that between 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2014, a total of 466 claims were decided by ACC.
The Mesh Down Under group's New Zealand branch founder Carmel Berry said the publicity around the surgical mesh issue may have raised awareness of the problem and people realise that they can lodge a treatment injury claim with ACC.
Surgical mesh is a net-like implant used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence in women - as well as bowel prolapse and hernia repairs.
Mrs Berry, who is a surgical mesh injury patient, said she was concerned the number of claims being filed by ACC were not being represented in Medsafe's Adverse Events Reports Relating to Surgical Mesh Implants, which it is required to release.
The last report available in December 2016 showed that between 2005 and Novermber 2016 it received 131 adverse event reports, 79 of which were reported by ACC.
Mrs Berry said there was a disconnect between what the two agencies were reporting, and she worried the Medsafe data might give people who were potentially undertaking a mesh-related surgery a false impression of the safety of the operation.
"You'd go, 'heck, that's not many, it must be a really safe operation,' but if you added in all of the ACC claims that's a whole different kettle of fish."
She said people may be more hesitant to have mesh-related surgery if they were aware of the number of claims being filed to ACC.
In a statement, ACC said it was internally reviewing how it collects surgical mesh related data to ensure the information it is providing to other agencies would be effectively contributing to a fuller understanding of the issue.
"ACC is aware that the number of treatment Injuries is increasing, including treatment injury claims for surgical mesh," it said.
"Since 2009 ACC treatment injury claims have increased by 63 percent, from 1.8 claims per 1000 in 2008/09 to 2.9 in 2014/15. Costs have increased by 43 percent, from $264 million in 2008/09 to $379 million in 2014/15.
"As a result, the government announced in December last year that between $15 [million] to $20m will be invested over the next five years to prevent treatment injuries.
"Following the surgical mesh review report in 2015, ACC provides a monthly data report to Medsafe and MoH which captures all treatment injury claims from minor to serious, including surgical mesh claims. Since 2005, ACC has been providing Medsafe with detailed reports for all serious and sentinel notifications."
Mesh Down Under is responsible for a petition to Parliament which was passed at Select Committee and put a number of recommendations to government which were accepted.
Part of the actions included ensuring all adverse event reports notified to ACC that relate to surgical mesh are also notified to Medsafe.
Mrs Berry said that when she met with ACC last week it had been unable to answer the group's question about the disparity in the figures.
She said it was still not known how many surgeries were performed using mesh each year, and that was why the group wanted a registry - so that every implant could be tracked if necessary.
"So that you could say, actually we are getting worse at performing surgery with mesh because we're having a greater number of treatment injuries, but you just can't know if you don't know how many surgeries are being done."
Medsafe is considering the registry.
It said it could be difficult to determine if the claims information coming from ACC relates to an adverse event relating to mesh.
Medsafe said it was working with ACC to improve reporting. ACC said it would soon be releasing updated figures on number of claims and costs.