A women’s health campaigner has complained to a national newspaper after an advice columnist suggested a medical procedure that has left patients with life-changing complications and has been suspended on the NHS.
Rachel Johnson – a journalist and sister of former prime minister Boris Johnson – responds to readers’ problems in a column which is published on a Saturday in The Daily Telegraph.
In a recent edition, a reader asked for advice on how to address her weak pelvic floor and an “embarrassing” incontinence issue after the births of her four children.
Ms Johnson’s response included gadgets and medications to improve the strength of the reader’s pelvic floor – and also vaginal mesh surgery which was suspended on the NHS in 2018.
Her advice has been widely criticised by various groups including health campaigners, physiotherapists, a surgeon and patients whose lives have been turned upside down from the procedure.
In her letter, she said: “Ms Johnson has promoted a surgery which was suspended in the UK by Baroness Julia Cumberlege in July 2018 at the start of a far-reaching independent review into Mesh, Sodium Valproate and Primodos.
“Baroness Cumberlege suspended mesh slings owing to the risk of life-altering and unacceptable complications. This procedure remains suspended in the NHS almost six years later.
“Ms Johnson also writes that this surgery is performed in outpatients thus downplaying the seriousness of the procedure.
“This was one of the key problems of the mesh scandal - surgeons downplaying the seriousness of a surgery that has irreversible and appalling risks.”
More recently, the government has been advised to pay compensation to women who are experiencing complications from pelvic mesh implants.
Dr Wael Agur, an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, at the University of Glasgow also says he “was shocked” at the advice Ms Johnson offered to the reader in the column.
“I’ve been involved in this matter for several years and trying to convince colleagues to drop this mesh completely and just carry out the safer options.
“But there are still surgeons in strong positions, and key opinion leaders who want the mesh procedure to come back.”
Dr Agur also pointed out the procedure has to be carried out in a theatre and therefore not in an outpatient clinic as Ms Johnson suggests.
He added: “The Daily Telegraph is a responsible paper and [the advice Rachel Johnson gave] is false information which must be corrected.”
Dr Agur explained the response should have said pelvic floor exercises are the first port of call and the best evidence is from pelvic floor exercises that do not involve any other devices.
He said: “If that is not successful then there are tablets that can help. There are ring pessaries or continence pessaries that can be inserted into the vagina that the patient can self-manage.
“If that doesn’t work then bulking agent injections are available. These are the safest intervention in non-surgical treatment is not successful.
“Then if these don’t work, we have the abdominal surgery which was the gold standard before the mesh was introduced two decades ago.”
A correction was issued the following Saturday (March 23).
The Daily Telegraph and the Ask Rachel column have been approached for comment.
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