Telangana government makes cancer a notifiable disease

The government of Telangana has declared cancer a notifiable disease making it mandatory for all government and private hospitals to report all cases of cancerThe Department of Health Medical and Family Welfare issued a Government Order in this regard on Tuesday April 7 providing a mandatory reporting mechanism for all diagnosed cancer cases in the state to ensure availability of reliable and timely data for public health actionAs per the order all cases of cancer including in situ and invasive cancers diagnosed or registered at any healthcare facility laboratories or Registrar of Births and Deaths in the state must be reported within one month of such diagnosis or registration through the portal in the prescribed formatThe objective of making cancer a notifiable disease is to create a robust surveillance system for cancer in the state which estimates cancer incidence prevalence and mortality augments preventive screening and early detection measures assists planning for diagnostic and treatment facilities palliative and rehabilitative care services and evidencebased policy formulation monitoring and researchA uniform Cancer Registry for the state will serve as a centralised platform for estimation of cancer incidence and prevalence reads the orderThe District Medical and Health Officer shall ensure all hospitals institutions bodies and laboratories both government and private under his or her jurisdiction mandatorily report all diagnosed cases of cancer in their facilityIn order to facilitate this each facility shall maintain a designated cancer register in the prescribed proforma to record both existing and new cases from the date of this notificationThe Director of Public Health and Family Welfare shall monitor the timely submission and quality of such information submittedAll hospitals empanelled under Rajiv Aarogyasri Health Scheme will be autoregistered and provided with login credentials to submit cancer case details through the state online portalAll other hospitals institutions bodies and laboratories should register online for login credentials to submit cancer case details through the state online portalThe Mehdi Nawaz Jung Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre Hyderabad shall function as Centre of Excellence for cancer care in Telangana and be responsible for periodical scrutiny and validation of individual cancer case information submitted to ensure purified data is available with the stateThe order noted that the burden of noncommunicable diseases is increasing steadily and has become a major public health concernCancer has emerged as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality underscoring the need for a systematic and institutional mechanism to capture reliable and timely information on the disease burden in the stateAccurate and comprehensive data on cancer incidence and prevalence distribution and types are essential for assessing the magnitude and pattern of disease in the state identifying risk factors geographical and demographic variations and for evolving an effective screening strategy reads the orderCancer registration will provide information on diagnosis treatment palliative care rehabilitative services and longterm followup Targeted policies and evaluation of interventions undertaken will channel effective resource managementPresently only institutionlevel registries are maintained at Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences Hyderabad and Mehdi Nawaz Jung Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre Hyderabad under the state governmentThe notification is applicable to all government including autonomous private and cooperative hospitals including medical college hospitals Employeesrsquo State Insurance All India Institute of Medical Sciences railways industry military hospitals and any other private clinics nursing homes and hospices providing cancer treatment or care AYUSH hospitals providing cancer care NonGovernmental Organisations Insurance Companies government or private Pathology and Radiology imaging laboratories Vital Statistics Department or Registrar of Births and Deaths and any other government or private sector scheme or programme collecting data on cancer casesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever