A women’s health campaigner says she’s “absolutely delighted” to hear pelvic floor physiotherapy is to be improved in the NHS.  

Kath Sansom raises awareness of the debilitating complications thousands of women have been suffering following pelvic mesh surgery. 

The procedure was being used extensively to address conditions such as a weakened pelvic floor, incontinence and prolapse which can all arise following childbirth.  

But instead of surgery, physiotherapy sessions can cure or ease problems for eight in 10 women, and Kath has fought hard for these services to be made available on the NHS.  

And earlier this month, MP Maria Caulfield, the Minister for Women, confirmed NHS England will offer pelvic floor physiotherapy in two thirds of centres from March 2024. 

Wisbech Standard:

Kath, a Cambridgeshire mum and former journalist for this publication, said: “We are absolutely delighted that women's pelvic floor physiotherapy services are being improved across most of England.  

“We hope our campaign means that our children and grandchildren will not be harmed as we have been.   

“We hope this service will be echoed across the other three nations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”   

She added: “It is a tragedy that a generation of women have had their health and wellbeing irreversibly harmed from what we were told was a quick surgery in the name of profits before patient safety.    

“This must never be allowed to happen again.” 

Wisbech Standard:

The revelation pelvic floor physio services will be improved was included in Ms Caulfield’s response to a question raised in the Houses of Parliament by the Labour MP Feryal Clark. 

In it, the minister acknowledged the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines “recognise physiotherapy is important for the prevention and treatment of pelvic floor problems related to pregnancy and birth”.  

She added: “The NHS Long Term Plan committed to ensure that women have access to multidisciplinary pelvic health clinics and pathways in England. 

“NHS England is deploying perinatal pelvic health services to improve the prevention, identification and access to physiotherapy for pelvic health issues antenatally and postnatally.  

“Two-thirds of local maternity and neonatal systems are expected to establish these services by the end of March 2023, with full deployment in England expected by March 2024.” 

Kath launched the ‘Sling the Mesh’ campaign in May 2015 and its Facebook group now has almost 10,000 members from around the world. 

Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock apologised when a public inquiry in 2020 revealed the shocking extent of patient failings and lack of regulation around pelvic mesh implants.  

Kath has also previously met with Steve Barclay, the current Health Secretary and MP for North East Cambridgeshire.  

In that particular conversation they discussed financial redress – something the government had previous refused to offer those who are mesh injured.  

In terms of education and public awareness, Kath said her next goal is to introduce teach students the importance of pelvic floor exercises.  

She said: “The next step of our campaign is to call for pelvic floor physiotherapy education in secondary schools as a regular part of the curriculum so women learn from an early age how to take care of and restore their core.”