(Nov 13) HEALTH Minister Khaw Boon Wan made a pledge yesterday to MPs worried about the confidentiality of patients' data when it becomes compulsory for information about their illness to be given to a national registry.

Mr Khaw assured the lawmakers that only essential information to support national policies will be collected.

The data collected will be anonymous, with personal particulars removed to maintain patient confidentiality.

Also, it will be a criminal offence for anyone to disclose the information without the express permission of the Health Ministry's director of medical services, said the minister during the debate on the National Registry of Diseases Bill, which was passed by Parliament yesterday.

The penalty is a jail term of up to a year or a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

Mr Khaw also said the legislation for a registry is not new. Many developed countries such as Canada, Australia, Norway and Finland have these mandatory requirements for their registries, he added.

Six MPs spoke during the debate on the Bill, and all raised the issue of privacy of patients' information.

Mr Khaw said he too shared their concern and assured them: 'Data that the registry collects will be treated with the strictest of confidence.'

Cancer, the top killer here, will be first disease earmarked for the registry. Heart and renal diseases and stroke will follow later.

For a start, doctors are required to tell the registry only when they are treating cancer patients. The specific information they need to give will be spelt out later.

However, Mr Khaw stressed that a good registry must be both comprehensive and well-maintained. Accurate data is essential for 'rational health-care policies', he said.

There is already a registry which collects information on cancer. It was set up in 1968.

But its data is incomplete because the information it receives is given voluntarily, with little participation from the private sector.

By making it compulsory, the Health Ministry can track such important information as the number of new cases each year, how long the patients live, if the disease affects a particular group of people and if prevention and treatment programmes can make a difference.

To illustrate the benefit of having such a registry, Mr Khaw cited lung cancer.

Singapore, in its early years, had one of the highest rates of lung cancer death among developed countries.

Given the link between smoking and lung cancer, the country embarked on a massive anti-smoking campaign.

As a result, fewer people smoked and, over the past 30 years, lung cancer rates among men fell from 65 to 45 men per 100,000 people.

'The benefits in terms of lives saved and the miseries reduced are immense,' said Mr Khaw, replying to Mr Sam Tan (Tanjong Pagar GRC) who had asked how patients can gain from such a registry.

The minister's big worry now is stomach cancer. Only one in four patients survives beyond five years.

'There is obviously room for improvement and we will put some research priority on stomach cancer to improve early detection and its treatment,'' said Mr Khaw.