Newborn bloodspot screening: setting the Australian national policy agenda

To the Editor: Maxwell and O'Leary's article1 and Wiltshire and Cameron's letter2 provide insights into the current issues facing newborn bloodspot screening (NBS) in Australia. It is clear that we have world-class NBS programs, but there is a lack of national policy guidance agreed on by governments. It has been argued that this has affected the programs' capacity to respond to the changing environment in which they operate.1,3,4 There is a need for clear national policies to support the programs' continued success and growth, and a way to assess the benefits and harms of screening additional conditions through NBS.5 Since the aforementioned articles were published, there has been substantial progress towards achieving these goals.