The leaders of New Zealand mesh patient advocacy group Mesh Down Under Charlotte Korte, Carmel Berry and Patricia Sullivan wrote to the Associate Health Minister James Shaw to request that an apology is made by the New Zealand Government to people suffering from surgical mesh complications. In their letter, they requested that the Prime Minister make the apology. Last week when speaking to Stuff, Shaw stated that "...I expect to get advice back about what would be the most meaningful and sincere way for the government to apologise."

“We were thrilled to hear this” co-founder Charlotte Korte responded “It will be the first time that the severity of surgical mesh complications is fully acknowledged by the government. We are pleased that they are finally accepting some accountability for allowing this awful medical disaster to continue.”

Korte said. “We are really thankful to James Shaw for stepping up on behalf of the government, in essence, to stand up and say we’re sorry we got this wrong and we should have acted sooner.”

However, New Zealand once again is lagging behind. The Australian Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt apologised to Australian women last week with these words "On behalf of the Australian Government, I say sorry to all of those women with the historic agony and pain that has come from mesh implantation which has led to horrific outcomes". He went on to say that the harm began with previous governments, but that it was now his Government’s responsibility to fix things.

Globally it is not only anti-mesh campaigners and government officials who are stepping up to voice their incredulousness at how this medical scandal came about and has been allowed to continue. The British Medical Journal (BMJ), published last week an editorial which has branded mesh as a “shameful episode.”

The BMJ investigation revealed that vaginal mesh devices had been "aggressively hustled" by manufacturers and along with "flimsy" evidence of safety, surgeons were inadequately trained and governments failed to track complication rates. Mesh Down Under’s Patricia Sullivan stated “For such a well-respected organisation within the medical profession to voice their condemnation of surgical mesh and initiate this investigation, this is extraordinary. What they unearthed is appalling” She agrees with the BMJ investigation that stated “vaginal meshes have been a shameful episode in the history of implantable devices, manufacturers, regulators, surgeons and governments have all played their part in this failing’”

Carmel Berry confirmed “The New Zealand government are now willing to listen to all mesh injured patients and their families. They will provide a forum for patients which will enable them to find out the true medical and social impact of mesh injuries. This is to get a clearer picture of the real story behind the scenes. This is good, but it is not only women that are affected with surgical mesh complications and this all inclusiveness is what we have been asking for since 2012”. Mesh Down Under will be meeting with the Ministry of Health this week to discuss the best options for contacting patients and a structure for this forum. “We have asked that all men and women affected by surgical mesh complications are included in this review. We welcome this inquiry as it is long overdue”.

Mesh Down Under believes this is a good start in the right direction, but they consider that the government is only at the very beginning of starting to address this issue properly. Sullivan states “We continue to maintain our position that a suspension is crucial while the necessary safeguards are established and are up and running.”

“A register needs to be implemented which would track ALL mesh procedures and this needs to happen urgently. The MOH recently spent nearly $100,000 on a Cost-Benefit Analysis for a mesh register which showed a benefit to NZ of $30 million”. Sullivan’s message to the Ministry of Health is ‘let’s just do this’ and she also wants to know if the funding bid has actually been made.

The BMJ Editor in chief stated, “a mandatory device register is long overdue.” Mesh Down Under agrees that for a register to be effective it should be mandatory for all new implants and that surgeons should be mandated to report complications to the register. MDU hope to hear news from Shaw that a full surgical mesh register will be implemented.

Mesh Down Under recommends, just like in the UK and Australia, that vaginal mesh should only be used as a surgical option of last resort, and only if all other treatment options have failed.

Korte says that “What is important in New Zealand now is training for surgeons to perform native tissue procedures, so they can offer alternative non-mesh options to patients. But this needs to be closely monitored while surgeons upskill and should be under high vigilance scrutiny - as is required in the UK”.

Surprisingly both Jacinda Ardern and David Clark have publically stayed very quiet about the whole surgical mesh saga. Berry, Sullivan and Korte think that this is completely unacceptable. We would like the Prime Minister for once to at least acknowledge the seriousness of this issue in the public domain.

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