AQW 20980/17-22

Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 25/06/2021
Answered On Date: 19/08/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health what support is being prepared for women that have suffered side-effects, the risk of which they were not made aware, from the use of Essure.

Answer:

The Essure device is no longer on the market in the UK following the manufacturer’s decision to withdraw it from the EU market on commercial grounds in 2017. The advice from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was that these devices were acceptably safe to use and there was no evidence to suggest any increased risk to patient safety.

Women requiring surgery as a result of Essure device complications are added to the gynaecology waiting list which is managed in chronological order, with the most urgent patients seen and treated first. On 15 June 2021, I published an Elective Care Framework, the purpose of which is to set out both the immediate and longer term actions and funding requirements needed to tackle our waiting lists. The framework builds on the actions and initiatives that are already underway to maintain and transform elective services.