National Registry of Diseases Act

(CHAPTER 201B)

(Original Enactment: Act 56 of 2007)

REVISED EDITION 2008

(31st December 2008)

An Act to establish the National Registry of Diseases and to provide for the compilation of information on the incidence of certain diseases for use as a basis for the direction of programmes for disease prevention and control, and for purposes connected therewith.

[1st August 2009]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the National Registry of Diseases Act and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint^*.

^*This Act came into operation on 1st August 2009 (S 352/2009).

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“agent of the Registry” means any public officer or employee of any statutory body who is appointed by the Director under section 3(3) to be an agent of the Registry;

“anonymised”, when used to describe information pertaining to an individual, means that the identity of that individual has been concealed or protected, whether by presenting such information in a statistical form or otherwise, such that it cannot be readily discovered or ascertained from that information;

“authorised Registry officer” means any Registry officer who is duly authorised by the Registrar in writing to carry out any particular function or to exercise any particular power under this Act;

“Director” means the Director of Medical Services;

“disclose”, in relation to any information held by the Registry, includes to grant to any person access to such information;

“disease” means any physical or mental ailment, disorder, defect or morbid condition (whether of sudden onset or gradual development), or the recurrence of any such ailment, disorder, defect or morbid condition;

“healthcare institution” means —

(a)	any private hospital, medical clinic, clinical laboratory or healthcare establishment licensed under the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act (Cap. 248); or
(b)	any facility, premises or conveyance which is declared by the Minister, by order published in the Gazette, to be a healthcare institution for the purposes of this Act;

“individually-identifiable”, when used to describe information pertaining to an individual, means that the identity of that individual can be readily discovered or ascertained from that information;

“investigation officer” means any public officer who is appointed under section 13 to be an investigation officer for the purposes of this Act;

“manager”, in relation to a healthcare institution, means the person having the management or control of the healthcare institution;

“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act (Cap. 174) and who holds a valid practising certificate;

“register” means a register kept and maintained by the Registrar under section 5;

“Registrar” means the person appointed by the Director under section 3 to be the Registrar of the Registry and includes a Deputy Registrar and an Assistant Registrar;

“Registry” means the National Registry of Diseases established under section 4;

“Registry officer” means any person who is appointed by the Director under section 3 to be an officer of the Registry;

“regulations” means regulations made under section 23;

“reportable disease” means a disease that is specified in the Schedule;

“requisite consent”, for the purposes of section 11 or 12, means —

(a)	the consent, given in the prescribed form and manner, of the person whose individually-identifiable information is to be disclosed under that section; or
(b)	where the person referred to in paragraph (a) is unable to give his own consent because of his age, infirmity of mind or body or any other cause, the consent, given in the prescribed form and manner, of such other person who is authorised by the regulations to give such consent for and on his behalf.

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