This is really refreshing to see on the front page of a newspaper.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8499945/A-generation-women-betrayed-Thousands-harmed-THREE-health-scandals.html
A generation of women betrayed: Thousands were harmed by THREE health scandals - mesh implants, pregnancy test drug and epilepsy treatment - which saw agonising symptoms dismissed as 'women's problems' by doctors, report reveals
The inquiry said lives were ‘catastrophically affected’ by mistakes made with three different products: pelvic mesh implants, a pregnancy test drug and an epilepsy treatment.
It criticised the NHS, private health firms and regulators for failing to listen to patients or spot the signs when things went drastically wrong
The story also makes the front page of the Telegraph, though not as lead.
The inquiry was overseen by Baroness Cumberlede who also oversaw the enquiry into Maternity Services which was damning too.
The Independent's excellent health correspondent Shaun Lintern covers the story here:
www.independent.co.uk/news/health/unsafe-medicines-patients-risk-healthcare-cumberlege-inquiry-a9605986.html?amp
Patients at risk from unsafe medicines and implants, major inquiry reveals
‘They are being exposed to a risk of harm when they do not need to be’
The title is frustrating as this is specifically a women's health issue.
The article states categorically
The inquiry said: “All that we have heard leads us to conclude the system is not safe enough for those taking medications in pregnancy or being treated using new devices and techniques. Patients are being exposed to a risk of harm when they do not need to be. And, while we have looked in detail at only three interventions, we have heard nothing that would lead us to believe that things are different for other surgical procedures and devices or other medications.”
It said the inquiry had exposed “systemic failings”, adding: “That the healthcare system itself failed to do so suggests that it has either lost sight of the interests of all those it was set up to serve or does not know how best to do this.
“The NHS is funded by the taxpayer for the benefit of all of society – current and future. Patients have been affected adversely by poor or indifferent care, have suffered at the hands of clinicians who do not, or who chose not to listen, and have been abandoned by a system that fails to recognise and then correct its mistakes at the earliest opportunity.
“At times patients have been denied their fundamental right to have the information they need to make fully informed choices. These patients should not have to campaign for years or even decades for their voices to be heard. Patients should not have to find the evidence to say whether the treatments they are being offered are safe and will leave them better off than before. They should not have to join the dots of patient safety. But when they do just that, they deserve to be listened to with respect.”
Now this is the bit where I hope you are all paying close attention:
The inquiry also found:
An institutional and professional resistance to changing practice even in the face of mounting safety concerns.
A culture of dismissive and arrogant attitudes by some clinicians that intimidate and confuse patients.
Complaints by women were dismissed as “normal” or “women’s problems” by male clinicians.
There is “gross under-reporting” of safety concerns related to medicines and medical devices.
Research funded by manufacturers “never sees the light of day” because it is negative or inconclusive while research on safety is “neither prioritised nor funded” by the NHS
Some doctors have conflicts of interest with financial and other links to companies, but there is no register. Companies don’t have to publish payments they make to doctors, hospitals or other organisations.
11 per cent of staff working for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency previously worked for the medical devices industry. The inquiry said the MHRA was left open to both “perceived and actual” influence by the industry.
Baroness Cumberlege said: “I have conducted many reviews and inquiries over the years, but I have never encountered anything like this; the intensity of suffering experienced by so many families, and the fact that they have endured it for decades. Much of this suffering was entirely avoidable, caused and compounded by failings in the health system itself.”
The inquiry has made wide-reaching recommendations to improve the system and ensure affected families receive support and that changes are made to prevent similar failings from happening again.
YEP except we know there is almost certainly another medical scandal in progress involving women and girls in particular, and it will come out in time. Exact same pattern on the face of it.
I think the report itself needs a good look onto it, and Baroness Cumberlege and Nadine Dorries need to get a few letters and emails.
(please feel free to forward this to Jolyon Maugham about why women might have slight issues with health professionals not always behaving ethically or in the interests of patients since we apparently should keep our mouths shut as HCP 'know best' after comments he made this week to tell him exactly where to stick it)
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RedToothBrush · 08/07/2020 01:12
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