The Public Health (Notification of Infectious Diseases) (Scotland) Regulations 1988

• Citation: S.I. 1988/1550
• Sections: 9

Section 1 Citation and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Public Health (Notification of Infectious Diseases) (Scotland) Regulations 1988 and shall come into force on 1st October 1988.

Section 2 Interpretation

(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“area” means the area for which a Health Board is constituted by an order made under section 2(1) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978( );

“chief administrative medical officer” means the chief administrative medical officer for the area of the Health Board by which he is appointed;

“Chief Medical Officer” means the Chief Medical Officer of the Scottish Home and Health Department;

“enteric fever” includes paratyphoid fever;

“Health Board” means a Health Board constituted by an order under section 2(1) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978;

“infectious disease” includes food poisoning;

“medical practitioner” means a registered medical practitioner;

“notification”, where referring to a written intimation, includes the transmission of a completed certificate in the form specified in Schedule 2 or in a form to the like effect, and “notify” shall be construed accordingly;

“notifiable” means requiring to be notified in accordance with regulation 3(1);

“week” means a period of seven days ending on Friday at the expiry of a Health Board’s ordinary office hours.

(2) Unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in these Regulations to a numbered regulation or Schedule is a reference to the regulation or Schedule bearing that number in these Regulations, and any reference in a regulation to a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph bearing that number in that regulation.

Section 3 Notification

(1) Subject to the provisions of these Regulations, a medical practitioner, on becoming aware that a patient is suffering from any disease listed in Schedule 1, shall forthwith notify the chief administrative medical officer for the area.

(2) Notification under paragraph (1) shall be by way of a certificate in the form specified in Schedule 2, or in a form substantially to the same effect.

(3) A notification under paragraph (1) shall be transmitted by being delivered to the chief administrative medical officer or by being sent by post addressed to him at the office of the Health Board.

(4) Nothing in these Regulations shall derogate from the provisions of the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act 1889 with respect to the obligations to notify any disease to which that Act applies.

Section 4 Weekly return of notifiable diseases

The chief administrative medical officer shall, at the end of each week or as soon as practicable thereafter, send to the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service a return of the number of cases of each notifiable disease notified to him during that week.

Section 5 Exchange of information

A chief administrative medical officer who receives a notification of a case of infectious disease relating to a patient whose usual place of residence is not within the chief administrative medical officer’s area shall forthwith notify the chief administrative medical officer of the area in which the patient is usually resident of the case of that disease.

Section 6 Diseases to be reported to the Chief Medical Officer

The chief administrative medical officer shall immediately report to the Chief Medical Officer any serious outbreak of any infectious disease (whether or not notifiable) which, to his knowledge, has occurred in the area.

Section 7 Confidentiality of documents and disclosure of contents

Any notification to which these Regulations relate, or copy thereof and any accompanying or related document, shall be transmitted in such a manner as to ensure complete confidentiality of the contents during transmission, and the information contained therein shall not be divulged to any person except insofaras is necessary for compliance with any enactment including these Regulations.

Section 8 Enforcement

These Regulations shall be enforced and executed by the Health Board for the area.

Section 9 Revocation

The Regulations specified in Schedule 3 are hereby revoked.