The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has accused the UK government of “backtracking” on the idea of creating a new redress agency for women and families who were avoidably harmed by medical interventions.
The move was strongly recommended in 2020 by the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (IMMDS), chaired by the Conservative peer Julia Cumberlege, into harms linked to three interventions.1 These were vaginal surgical mesh, which left some women with devastating complications, and the anti-epileptic drug sodium valproate and the hormone pregnancy test Primodos, both of which have been linked to harm to unborn children.
The government said in its response to a report by the committee on the review, “In summary, we do not believe it is necessary to create a new agency for …