Thanks to Bernadette for alerting me to this:
From SMA UK 5 September 2025:
We are absolutely delighted to hear the news that NHS Scotland will be adding SMA to their newborn screening programme in an evaluative and research capacity with the aim of the first baby being tested in early 2026. External funding will be used to help purchase specialist testing equipment for the Scottish Newborn Screening Laboratory in Glasgow, and with only one testing site in the country, this means that every baby born will be screened for SMA, approximately 45,000 each year (45,763 live births in 2024). With clinical pathways already established and disease modifying treatments approved, this means those babies born will be treated pre- symptomatically and can therefore, in many cases, follow normal developmental pathways. The data generated over a 2-year period from Scottish Newborn Screening Laboratory will complement and help contribute to the UK In-service evaluation ultimately helping towards a positive UK NSC decision for SMA to be added to the bloodspot programme. This is a hugely positive step forward with Scotland joining other countries around the world who already screen for SMA.
Why did I miss this at the time? The coverage or should I say lack of?
Kent Online but not BBC Scotland?
NHS England? Still thinking about it. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/nhs-newborn-test-stop-kids-36539131
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Interesting. I worked for a year as a research assistant in the Scottish Parasitology Lab in Stobhill Hospital in the late ’80s. At that time the lab which carried out all the tests on the Guthrie cards or Baby Heel Pricks was in the same building. As it says above the Guthrie Cards from every baby born in Scotland were sent to this lab for testing. This meant that not only did they screen babies for life threatening diseases but they also had a record of the number of births in Scotland each year.
The number of tests they carry out now is around ten and include cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease as well as the ones for unborn errors of metabolism.
Interesting too that it is mostly regional papers that report on the SMA test in Scotland. I have noticed recently that these regional papers often report on Scottish news/developments and do so usually in a positive way unlike the MSM.
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Yes, regional press still has a real purpose. The Cumnock Chronicle exposed the Bradford roots of the County Lines gangs the locals chased out.
John
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