Better training should be put in place to ensure medical staff are more aware of the complications women can suffer after mesh implant surgery, a review has suggested.

An independent review is being carried out into the use of the controversial procedure, which can help those with prolapse and bladder problems.

The interim report expressed "serious concerns that some women who had adverse events found they were not believed", adding this added to women's distress and meant they had to wait longer for help.

As a result, it recommended an expert group, being led by the Scottish Government, should now "review the training and information available to clinical teams and find ways of incorporating patient views".

A review of the use of the implants was ordered after women who had been left suffering from painful complications took their case to Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee.

There is a lack of evidence concerning the long-term impact of mesh surgery, the interim review stated, calling on the expert group to highlight this "knowledge gap to funders of health research and the research community" .

In addition, patients should be "provided with information enabling them to report adverse events if these occur", it added.

About 11,000 women in Scotland have had the implant procedure but MSPs have been told that as many as one in five implants can go wrong, with the interim report noting mesh implants "carry a risk of complications which in some cases are life-changing and cannot be corrected".

Health Secretary Shona Robison is expected to give her initial response to the report when she appears before the committee on Tuesday.

Ahead of that, she said: "I want to be clear that our advice to boards around suspending the use of mesh remains in place.

"We need to see the final report before we consider any changes that could potentially be made. We also need to be confident the recommendations for improved safeguards have been agreed and implemented.

"I have asked the Scottish Government-led expert group, which includes members of the Scottish Mesh Survivors Group, to continue its work and to look carefully at this interim report's recommendations around improved safeguards and how we may go about implementing them.

"We know that these procedures, in some cases, can have serious consequences and life-changing side effects - which is why we recently set up a helpline for those who are affected or are worried they may be."

Ms Robison also paid tribute to the Scottish Mesh Survivors Group, saying the women in it had "contributed hugely to what has no doubt for them, been a difficult and painful process".

Dr Lesley Wilkie, chairman of the independent review, said: "This report points the way forward for improving services for women in the treatment of these conditions.

"The report recommends improvements in clinical governance ensuring above all that women with these conditions can be assured that the treatment which they receive within the NHS is evidence-based, audited and likely to produce a good result."