SINGAPORE: Following private blood bank Cordlife’s mishandling of cord blood units, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will review the regulatory requirements for cord blood banking, said Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary on Wednesday (Jan 10).
The regulatory requirements under the Healthcare Services Act (HCSA) and the Healthcare Services (Cord Blood Banking Service) Regulations include frequency of inspections and other aspects of inspections, as well as monitoring and reporting requisites.
“However, in reviewing these regulations, we also need to be mindful not to add inappropriate costs and regulatory compliance burden. We need to take a risk-based approach,” said Dr Puthucheary in parliament.
He was responding to questions from Member of Parliament Hany Soh (PAP-Marsiling–Yew Tee) on whether MOH will consider increasing the frequency of its biennial routine inspection and enhancing the monitoring and reporting requirements of all licensed cord blood banking service providers.
She also asked if the ministry had received any reports or requests for assistance from affected parties and whether it has directly supported the clients.
Cordlife has been in the spotlight for damaging cord blood units belonging to at least 2,150 clients, with another 17,000 clients possibly affected.
The cord blood units were stored in seven tanks that were exposed to temperatures above acceptable limits.
MOH first made the incident public in November last year when it announced that Cordlife was being investigated. The ministry had ordered Cordlife to stop the collection, testing, processing and/or storage of any new cord blood and human tissues, or provide any new types of tests to patients, for a period of up to six months.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Dec 8 that the probe into Cordlife would likely take another six weeks. Shortly after, the company announced that it would accept the six-month suspension and that it would not be submitting written representations to MOH for its operations.