Leading an independent review into mesh implant surgery was "mission impossible", MSPs have been told.

Chair Tracey Gillies apologised for failing to unite all panel members around the review's controversial final report.

Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee heard a "review of a review" is to be set up to see what lessons can be learned from the process, which was branded a "whitewash" by opposition parties and mesh survivors.

Two of those survivors, Olive McIlroy and Elaine Holmes, resigned from the panel, claiming the report had been ''diluted'', and a clinician member also withdrew.

Ms Gillies took over as chair of the independent review of transvaginal mesh implants in its final stages towards the end of last year.

It emerged she had no conversations with previous chair Lesley Wilkie, who resigned for personal reasons.

Her evidence was punctuated by cries of "shame on you" and "rubbish" from a packed public gallery, many of whom had suffered painful and debilitating complications as a result of the procedure, including Ms McIlroy and Ms Holmes.

Ms Gillies said her task had been "almost mission impossible from the beginning".

She said: "It was clear that there were strongly-held views of difference at the point that I came in, so one could say more fool me for agreeing to chair this.

"This is not something that most people would have ... welcomed would be the wrong word, but it's clearly going to be a very difficult thing and I personally have reflected and feel disappointed that I have not achieved what I would have set out to do, which would have been to bring this in in consensus.

"I hear the voices from behind me and I feel very sorry ... that I have not achieved something which brought something together where people felt they were able to stay as part of that to the end and I am personally sorry that that has not happened, and if that is any fault of mine then I would want to acknowledge that."

Responding to claims the report was a "whitewash", she added: "I've done my best from the place that I started in to try to include the views as I heard them and to try to make sure that we produced a report that considered the evidence as we'd been asked to do, and actually produced a report that was credible and tried to set out as much of the evidence as possible."

Health Secretary Shona Robison told the committee she had commissioned Glasgow Caledonian University Professor Alison Britton to "produce a report on how the independent review process was undertaken and importantly what lessons can be learned in the future".

She said the review was not about revisiting the evidence but would look at concerns raised about the process.

The report concluded procedures must not be offered routinely to women with pelvic organ prolapse, recommended patients should be offered a range of treatments and must be given the information to make ''informed choices'', and said the reporting of adverse events must be mandatory.

Ms Robison confirmed the recommendations would continue to be implemented despite calls from campaigners for an all-out ban.

The Health Secretary repeated that the government did not have the power to ban the procedures as that lay with UK regulatory body the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.