Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to include pulse oximetry as an additional test to the Newborn and Infant Physical Examination programme.
Ministers have accepted the United Kingdom National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) recommendation from its November 2019 meeting, that further research is needed on the use of pulse oximetry (PO) as an additional test to understand the effect of screening on all babies, before a final recommendation can be made to add PO to the Newborn and Infant Physical Examination programme. Minutes from the UK NSC’s meeting can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-national-screening-committee-uk-nsc