• Home

Law to set up centralised Cancer Registry by year-end

DUBAI — A law to establish a centralised and detailed Cancer Registry, that will also involve the private sector, will be in place within this year, said a senior health official.

Speaking to Khaleej Times at the Arab Health yesterday, Dr Ali Shukr, Under-secretary at the Ministry of Health, said that the existing ‘registry’ was only available at Tawam Hospital.

“A law, which is expected to be in place within this year, will include all government and private healthcare providers to be part of this registry, at the local level, while a regional centralised database is also being looked into,” he said. Dr Shukr noted that the centralised cancer database would work under the UAE Central Statistical Centre which would have details of all possible diseases in the UAE.

“We already have in place a strategy to deal with breast cancer which will be implemented within two months,” he noted.

He said that several issues had to be sorted out before a detailed law was put into place including transparency and accuracy.