Mesh removal: skills accreditation planned for surgeons who work in new centres

Surgeons who will work at new specialist mesh centres throughout England hope to establish their competence through credentialing in the field of pelvic mesh removal surgery, in the absence of a recognised training programme.

The seven centres around England for women with complications from mesh inserted for urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse will begin operating on 1 April.1 Their establishment follows a recommendation in the Cumberlege review, which looked into three avoidable harms from medical treatment, including the after effects of pelvic mesh.2

Women around the world have experienced serious long term effects from the material, which has twisted, moved, …