Compensation paid to women let down by contraceptive implant

Posted 05/01/2011

A contraceptive implant which has left some users injured or with unplanned children has led to the NHS being forced to pay out compensation due to clinical negligence.

Implanon, which was hailed as the future of family planning, received more than 1,000 complaints after those prescribed the device became pregnant or experienced scarring and other problems.

According to Channel 4 News, seven women have received a collective settlement of £200,000 from NHS Trusts following their use of the contraceptive technology.

Some users have had to undergo abortions after assuming the device would stop them conceiving.

One woman who became pregnant said: “It really disturbed me. I wasn’t happy, not feeling well. Your mind is disturbed … my mind was so disturbed – thinking why is this happening to me?”

Implanon is supposed to work by releasing hormones from a chip implanted underneath the skin on a regular basis, working in a similar way to the pill but with the convenience of automation.

Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, who heads the Ashtons Legal clinical negligence team, adds: “There appears to have been a number of out-of-court settlements regarding the failure of this contraceptive device. It is important to appreciate that no form of contraception is 100 per cent effective, with risks of pregnancy ranging from one to five per cent.

“The implant has now been replaced, suggesting that the company or NHS was not happy with the original implant’s performance. Interestingly, in two other cases that have settled out of court, the problem was that the implant was not correctly inserted by NHS staff and in fact never left the syringe driver which was supposed to inject the implants under the skin.

“Ashtons Legal handles all types of medical injury claim, whether the fault lies with the equipment or medication, or with the medical staff.”