Kath Sansom

In Spring 2021, I was due to meet a senior NHS official, along with a group of pelvic mesh campaigners, to ask for consistent training of all surgeons performing mesh removal procedures. That meeting was cancelled, and I’m calling for it to be reinstated, and fast. We desperately need action to sort out the inadequate, piecemeal approach the NHS has taken to redress the harm caused by surgical mesh. I manage a Facebook support group of over 9,200 women, most of whom are still living with debilitating pain and side effects caused by pelvic mesh. Each experience tells of harm added to

During an online meeting with the Patient Engagement Advisory Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration, I was struck by the huge problems that continue to exist around medical device recalls. I have been campaigning on these issues since 2015 and progress has been painfully slow. Although the meeting had a US-focus, the issues addressed are global. Medical devices travel across the world to be implanted in or used by patients - we have the technology to keep track of them and if we don’t start using it, an increasing number of patients will be harmed. Here are some of the issues r

Falling asleep at the wheel causing a multiple car crash is considered such a serious offence in law that the driver could face up to 14 years in prison.[1] When it comes to falling asleep at the medical regulation wheel, however, causing major harm to patients, the result appears to be a review, knuckles rapped, a few negative media reports and then business as usual. Campaigners celebrated when Baroness Cumberlege called for urgent reform of the way healthcare treatments are regulated in her First Do No Harm Report.[2] But really, this is old news. As long ago as 2005, th

Corruption, greed and deceit, sound like the basis of a gripping crime novel or a binge-worthy Netflix series, but for patient campaigners it’s what we find on an alarming basis when it comes to the lucrative world of healthcare. We’re in an age of miracles where modern medicine can achieve remarkable things, but this can lead to patient safety taking a backseat when shareholders have dollar signs in their sights. We hear how tragedies such as the mesh scandal, Primodos, Valproate, metal hips and PIP breast implants must never happen again. But until we have tougher regulations, alongside