NHS to pay £200,000 in personal injury compensation

In the wake of a series of unwanted pregnancy and personal injury claims stemming from a faulty contraception device, the National Health Service faces the prospect of paying £200,000 in personal injury compensation.

The implant, about the size of a matchstick, is designed to work for three years in preventing pregnancies.  It is designed to slowly release the hormone progesterone after being inserted below the skin of the upper arm.

However more than 1,600 complaints regarding the device have been received recently by the Coalition goverment’s Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.  Several of these complaints were received from doctors who had taken issue with the implant themselves.  Doctors claimed that they were experiencing difficulty in inserting the implants.  Moreover once inserted they could not be checked due to the device being nondetectable by x-ray radiography.

Known as Implanon, the contraceptive plastic rod is supposedly being held responsible for nearly 590 unwanted pregnancies to which the MHRA has been alerted. However this figure may be inaccurate since many women may not have lodged complaints with failures of their own implanted devices.

So far the NHS has had to pay out approximately £200,000 in personal injury compensation for women who suffered both emotionally and physically in the wake of having been administered the contraceptive implant.

One case included a woman who had been traumatised by her unwanted and unexpected pregnancy.  She suffered both psychological problems and the dissolution of her marriage in the wake of an abortion.  In another case one woman was left with permanent scarring because the implant had been inserted too close to the muscle tissue of her arm.

Implant manufacturer MSD issued a statement through a spokesperson that they were confident that the implant was both safe and efficient.  The spokesperson added that no contraceptive on the market was deemed to be 100% effective in preventing pregnancies.

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