All hospitals must report cases
Mansoor Peer
Srinagar, May 21: The Jammu and Kashmir government has declared cancer a “Notifiable Disease” across the Union Territory, making it mandatory for all healthcare institutions to report diagnosed and treated cancer cases to authorities.
According to a notification issued by the Health and Medical Education Department under S.O. 146, the decision has been taken under Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, in the interest of public health surveillance, epidemiological assessment, treatment planning and evidence-based policy formulation.
The notification states that all government and private hospitals, medical colleges, clinics, nursing homes, AYUSH institutions, laboratories, diagnostic centres, NGOs, insurance companies, and institutions maintaining cancer-related health data will fall under the ambit of the order.
The government has directed all concerned institutions to maintain a dedicated Cancer Register for recording existing and newly diagnosed cancer cases and submit data through a prescribed reporting mechanism.
To streamline the process, the Health and Medical Education (H&ME) Department will establish a dedicated online portal for reporting cancer cases. Hospitals empanelled under the PMJAY-SEHAT scheme will be automatically registered on the portal, while other institutions will have to register separately for login credentials and data submission.
The notification further states that the State Cancer Institute at Government Medical College Jammu and Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, will function as Centres of Excellence for scrutiny, validation and verification of cancer-related data.
Director SKIMS, Soura, has been designated as the overall nodal officer responsible for ensuring regular transmission of validated data to the National Cancer Registry Programme maintained by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The government has also emphasised strict confidentiality of patient data, stating that information collected under the notification will be used only for public health surveillance, epidemiological research, treatment planning and policy formulation, and will not be disclosed except in accordance with the law.
The notification directs the Director SKIMS, Principal GMC Jammu, and Directors of Health Services in Jammu and Kashmir divisions to ensure effective implementation of the order.
