Writer Rob Heyland

I was reluctant to take up the offer of writing this piece. Making an entertainment from other people's anguish brings with it heavy responsibilities. I was persuaded when I read Judge Harding-Clark's judicial review.

It revealed a complex story that I felt warranted being brought to a wider audience. It also revealed that, in combination with the various other professional reviews, affidavits and witness statements, there was enough material in the public domain for us to create a reasonably authentic portrayal of the events.

The story is compelling: in it we witness the experiences of the women who needlessly had their wombs removed, the impact on their lives and on their families, the prevailing ethos in the hospital that led to this state of affairs existing more-or-less unchallenged for over twenty years, and the failings of the system and the machinery that came to light when the whistle was finally blown. The drama also depicts the courage of those who fought for what was right, the motives of those who didn't, and the questions of how and why it happened.

I read whatever I, or our remarkable researcher Sheila Ahern, could get our hands on. Thousands of pages of reports and statements. I met some of the people involved from patients, families, leading players from the health board, journalists and others.

I spoke to professionals to seek their personal and professional opinion of the whole affair. It became clear, and remains a remarkable truth, that almost everyone (however closely or distantly they know the story) has an opinion and almost all of those opinions differ.

- Rob Heyland