脐带血过期事件，引发新加坡国会讨论

5Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fongasked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will consider strengthening the obligations of commercial cord blood banking service providers to include the requirement of a full refund of the initial contract fees or other earlier payments when these service providers are found to be responsible for any damage to cord blood units under their care, rendering such units unsuitable for stem cell transplant services.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Health): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to answer Question Nos 2 to 5 on today's Order Paper?

Mr Speaker: Please proceed.

Dr Janil Puthucheary: Sir, we understand the anxiety and concern amongst parents as a result of the lapses at Cordlife Group Limited (Cordlife). Cord blood banking is an elective, commercial service provided by the private sector. Customers entered into a commercial contract with the service providers when they sign up and the Ministry of Health (MOH) is not a party to these contracts. The Government cannot overstep the law. There are limits to which the Government can intervene, especially when it comes to issues of compensation and refunds.

What MOH is actively doing is with respect to regulation and facilitation. The Ministry will be supervising the proper completion of further tests in the affected tanks to achieve a high level of confidence in the findings. Given the sample sizes and the testing capacity available, this will take another year.

MOH will also closely monitor Cordlife's dissemination of information to its customers and the public, as well as progress in addressing the deficiencies identified and in making improvements. These include directing Cordlife to properly validate and implement its new temperature monitoring system, revalidate its processing method for cord blood units and enhance staff training and supervision of its operations more closely.

MOH has also discussed with other providers who are prepared to facilitate transfer of their cord blood units. Parents who wish to do so can contact Cordlife and the receiving cord blood bank to discuss the transfer arrangements. That said, we urge parents to carefully consider the risks of doing so, given the logistical complexity of making a physical transfer at sub-zero temperatures, particularly so when the cord blood is not ascertained to be impacted.

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