The famous "heel prick test" is experiencing its biggest transformation in decades. This type of screenings are key for the early detection of rare diseases, since 80% of them are of genetic origin and many of them can start to be treated before the first symptoms appear.
Historically, the Ministry of Health only required detecting seven diseases nationally, which placed Spain at the European tail.
The turning point occurred in 2024, when more diseases began to be incorporated. The penultimate step occurred at the end of 2025. It was then that Congress approved, with a large majority of 307 votes, the consideration of a bill from the Socialist Party that aims to standardize the neonatal screening in our country. For this, in principle, the Ministry of Health and the Health departments of the different autonomous communities were entrusted with confirming that an evaluation would be carried out at least every two years, of the detection of neonatal diseases by extracting a few drops of blood from the heel of newborns.
Another deadline that the norm indicates is that the Government has one year to approve the regulations that concretize the process. And, prior consultation with the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, both the criteria and the requirements to evaluate these screenings will be established.
Despite the broad consensus achieved in the Lower House, the political parties have presented up to 40 amendments, which have been included in the Official Bulletin of the Parliament
PP: guarantee economic endowment
Thus, the PP registered an amendment proposing that the future norm cannot be applied until the Ministry of Health enables a specific economic endowment that ensures its complete deployment throughout the territory. Furthermore, it includes a modification aimed at correcting territorial differences in the access to these tests. The reason is that, currently, each autonomous community can expand on its own the catalog of analyzed diseases beyond what is set by the Ministry of Health, which causes there to be regions with a broader screening than others, of up to 43 diseases.
For this reason, the amendment emphasizes that the common basic portfolio must include all those diseases among the 43 cited that meet the established criteria for the 12 already currently included". On the other hand, the PP proposes that the screening for Pompe disease and for mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 be incorporated into the common basic portfolio.
ERC: more diseases screened
ERC also requests that these two diseases be incorporated, as well as the expansion of public dental coverage up to 18 years of age, guaranteeing assistance to people with disabilities and vulnerable groups. Furthermore, it demands an increase in the State's budgetary allocation so that the autonomous communities can assume these new benefits.
PSOE and Sumar: continuous review
For their part, PSOE and Sumar jointly presented five amendments. Their objective is to ensure the periodic review of the neonatal screening program by the Population Screening Committee. This update would be annual and continuous, with the objective of identifying diseases that can be incorporated into the program, thus changing the aforementioned initial approach, which set an evaluation at least every two years.
PSOE and Sumar also propose the creation of stable channels to ensure and institutionalize the participation of both scientific societies, as well as independent experts and patient and family associations in the evaluation of the program. In addition, they demand the update of the Population Screening Framework Document, in force for 16 years.
PNV: extend the screenings
PNV highlights in its amendments the need to guarantee the competencies of the autonomous communities, so that these can continue incorporating into their service portfolios additional neonatal screening techniques or procedures not contemplated in the common portfolio, as already happens today. It also proposes that the evaluation of heel prick test programs be extended to other screenings, such as auditory. And it demands that the wording guarantees that already implemented tests are not withdrawn, unless there is a solid justification, as has happened in other nations with some screenings whose treatments failed.
Finally, the PNV also proposes that the Government be obliged to submit to Congress a report on the conclusions of the review of neonatal screenings and on the measures adopted to update the common portfolio.
Junts: change of terminology and more autonomy
Also Junts per Catalunya insists on autonomy: it has proposed an amendment so that, within a maximum period of three months from the entry into force of the law, the Ministry of Health initiates the necessary procedures to complete the transfer of pending powers to the Generalitat. Furthermore, it recommends changing the denomination "heel prick test" to "neonatal screening in dry blood spot sample", which it considers more precise.
Vox: expand screened diseases
Vox has registered amendments so that new screening tests aimed at the early detection of more diseases not currently included are systematically incorporated, such as karyotype tests, FISH or arrayCGH, gene panels or exome.
In another proposal, Vox suggests eliminating the cost-effectiveness criterion as a requirement to incorporate new pathologies into screening, considering that basing oneself on this criterion could mean that many diseases, especially rare ones, would be excluded due to their reduced prevalence.
Bildu: more frequent evaluation
Finally, EH Bildu also advocates for the term "neonatal screening in dried blood sample" and proposes an evaluation every year of the program instead of every two years. Another suggestion is to modernize the current information system to thus improve coordination between autonomous communities territories. And establish protocols that guarantee more agile response times when communicating results. On the other hand, it also advises implementing multidisciplinary reviews of the screening programs.
Next steps
The following steps will be the drafting of a report on the text and the proposed amendments registered. Next, the Health Committee will debate the document and vote on each of them. Those that obtain a majority will be incorporated into the opinion that will be submitted to the Plenary of the Congress of Deputies.