Cordlife begins offering refunds to affected parents

Private cord blood bank Cordlife has started reaching out to affected parents to offer refunds, The Straits Times has learnt.

- Lee Li Ying

Parents whose cord blood units have been damaged have received letters from Cordlife from as early as Feb 5 for refunds on annual fees paid in 2022 and 2023.

However, some parents are not happy with the refund offered, and are not accepting it. Instead, a group of under 100 aggrieved parents are pushing ahead with their plans to pursue legal action.

A number of cord blood units under 2,200 - in one of Cordlife's storage tanks were damaged and rendered unsuitable for stem cell transplants due to improper storage.

In letters seen by ST, parents who have been paying their storage fee annually have been offered refunds of $537.50, which include fees and GST for the two years.

To initiate the refund process, parents have to complete an online form, said Cordlife's outgoing group chief executive officer Tan Poh Lan in the letter. The refund will be processed within three to four weeks of the company receiving their details, Ms Tan added. The company will also waive all annual fees from 2022 until the end of the contractual term, she said.

"The refund is definitely not enough. It just feels like they want to give us that $500 plus and close the case," said special needs educator Bobby Lim, 54, whose 15-year-old son's cord blood unit was damaged.

A retiree in his 50s who wants to be known only as Mr L.T. pointed out that initial investigations by the Ministry of Health (MOH) revealed that lapses had begun as early as November 2020.