“These women have suffered enormous stress and pain. The acknowledgement of this by implementing a review will go some way to address this,” Braid said.
ACC announced in October its new guidelines would consider the latest medical understanding of mesh injuries when reviewing claims.
An estimated 377 mesh-related claims had been turned down over the past 15 years by ACC, Mesh Down Under (MDU) co-founder Patricia Sullivan said.
Sullivan said she was “cautiously optimistic” and hoped it would allow people injured by mesh to access help they “so desperately” needed.
Sullivan was pleased research by herself, Massey University nursing professor Annette Huntington and nursing student Emma Bramwell, The Loss of a Life Well Lived, in 2019 had informed ACC’s new guidelines.
Sullivan urged anyone harmed by mesh who had been declined, or not put a treatment claim in, to do so now.
ACC’s decision followed a Ministry of Health-led restorative justice process last year involving more than 600 people injured or affected by mesh. Sullivan said MDU would wait to see how many old and new claims were accepted before deciding if the process had been successful.