JOHN TORY CALLS FOR EXPANDED BABY SCREENING
McGuinty’s decision not to cover sickle cell anemia screening should be revisited: Tory
(Queen’s Park) – Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory today called on the McGuinty Liberals to reverse their decision to exclude sickle cell anemia screening from an expansion of newborn baby screening announced this week.
“Sickle cell screening can save the lives of a lot of children and prevent severe mental disabilities,” said Tory. “Dalton McGuinty and George Smitherman should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring the needs of thousands of Ontario families and trumpeting a fatally flawed plan to expand newborn screening.”
As welcome as the plan is to add 19 rare metabolic conditions, it fails the test of fairness and equity by ignoring inherited blood diseases predominant in babies of African, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Indian and Southern Asian descent. The decision came after the Ministry took recommendations from a secret advisory group.
“The McGuinty Liberals should admit that they’ve made a mistake,” said Tory. “Their process for deciding on expanded baby screening was flawed and not inclusive. The McGuinty Liberals should immediately reverse this decision.”
The
McGuinty Liberals refused to include medical experts in blood disorders
and endocrine disorders on their Newborn
Screening Subcommittee of the Ontario Advisory Committee on Genetics.
The McGuinty Liberals also refused to include parents and lay advocates.
Tory added: “There is a special kind of expertise that comes from living night and day with a child who has one of these rare disorders and the government policy-making should be informed by the real-life experiences of these parents.”
