Ms Mary McLaughlin:

I gave the statistics from the NHS in England because the HSE does not have any data. There was a common problem with data collection prior to electronic records. This means that the first decade of mesh implantation was detailed in the form of manual records. Nobody wants to go back into manual records. There is also a problem in that these surgeries were not given the correct code, so even if you went back into the records, you might find that it has been logged under a general women's surgery rather than as a specific code for mesh implantation.

That is why I gave the statistics from NHS England for the past decade. There were 100,000 and, according to the chief medical officer in England, the complication rate was 15% to 20%. The North does not have statistics. It has some statistics for the public healthcare system, which included 10,000 women. However, that number only relates to public healthcare system. Many women have had these surgeries through the private healthcare system. There is no data for that hidden sector.