Linda Millband, national medical negligence lead at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “The road that mesh victims have travelled has been long and lonely.  It has been a journey of rejection and belittlement, while wracked with pain.

Baroness Cumberlege doesn’t pull any punches. The changes she calls for are too late for those we represent, but they offer the possibility of real reform.

This is not just about the NHS. Her recommendations must equally apply to the private healthcare sector, which is every bit, if not more, complicit.

An apology to the women and men who have suffered, as well as their families, is as welcome as it is overdue, but it won’t bring back the people our clients once were or the childhoods or relationships they have lost.

To ensure this is not a further slap in the face for our clients, the promised changes must be swift, real and resourced from new money, not recycled funds taken from other parts of the health service.

The Redress Agency and the Patient Safety Commissioner must not become a bureaucracy in which victims get lost or patronised.

The GMC must not be side-tracked by senior or vested interests.

The Task Force should encompass those who have been through this and suffered, who have been dismissed when they were right.  This is not a cosy job for the great and the good.  We need people who will get the job done.

The Task Force has a lot of work to do and that work must start today.”