This letter has been submitted to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care by each state’s Pelvic Mesh Support Groups and the Health Consumer organisations in each State and Territory across Australia, asking the Commission to comprehensively address the recommendations tabled in the Senate Report (see below post).
Excerpt:
This letter is a joint appeal from each state’s Pelvic Mesh Support Groups and the current Health Consumer organisations in each State and Territory across Australia. On behalf of all mesh injured women of Australia, and those who may in the future access treatment for stress urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse we write to you, the Australia Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare to comprehensively address the recommendations tabled in the above report. We need and value your support in addressing the urgent call for action to prioritise the management of this medical disaster that is crippling Australian women and their families.
Women from the Support Groups are struggling with lifelong complications, physical and mental ill health, pain, suffering, financial burden and significant loss of life as they knew it. They feel that there needs to be a dramatic cultural change in treatment, reflected from the top and ensured by ACSQHC.
There is a significant lack of trust in the medical treatment these women have received; they have been dismissed, ignored and gaslighted into believing their ailments were “all in our heads”. As Senator Rachel Siewert, Chair of the Senate Inquiry, stated in her report release speech: They have suffered for so long without being heard. They have not been believed. In some cases, they’ve been belittled. They have been ignored. Well, for no longer shall they be ignored.
Appropriate pathways for lifelong care are now required. A trauma based model is needed for treatment moving forward; together with empowerment for all women at every stage of their journey.