Facts, beyond mere words. Pedro Sánchez once again raises the social flag of public policies, in the midst of an electoral context and to make it clear that the Government is not idly waiting for the complex political scenario of the legislature to be clarified. After promoting public housing policy with new initiatives and investments that aim to guarantee access for the youngest, the Chief Executive this Monday put the focus, once again, on public health.
Sánchez traveled this morning to Oviedo, where he visited the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA), where he announced an expansion of public health services and benefits. “We are going to expand the common basic portfolio of services of the national health system in neonatal screening,” the President of the Government announced.
“Neonatal screening is a powerful tool to identify some pathologies in early stages,” he explained. “To promote this prevention method is to improve the future of those who have just come into the world. Give them more and better years of life. And, therefore, it is an obligation for those of us who want to strengthen public health,” he justified. “That is the way to go,” she stressed. And that is the commitment that it has assured to acquire.
“In the coming weeks we will increase the portfolio of detectable diseases from 7 to 11. And, tomorrow, the Council of Ministers will examine the necessary steps to double that number between now and the first quarter of next year,” the Chief Executive announced. “The objective – he has assured – is to improve the well-being of our population. Make the system more sustainable. And homogenize this benefit throughout the country, so that the health of Spaniards does not depend on their zip code or their income.”
The main objective of the Neonatal Screening Program for Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases is to identify and early treat newborns affected by those congenital diseases that meet the inclusion criteria in neonatal screening programs. Appropriate health intervention, at the right time, reduces morbidity, mortality and disabilities associated with these diseases, the Ministry of Health assures.
The diseases that are part of the neonatal screening program for endocrine-metabolic diseases of the common portfolio of healthcare services of the National Health System and that are offered to all newborns in Spain are, at this time, seven: Congenital hypothyroidism, Phenylketonuria , Cystic fibrosis, Medium-chain acyl-coenzyme A-dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD), Long-chain 3-hydroxy-acyl-coenzyme A-dehydrogenase deficiency (LCHADD), Glutaric acidemia type I (GA-I), and Sickle cell anemia .
