Reporting procedures

Doctors in England and Wales have a statutory duty to notify a 'Proper Officer' of the Local Authority of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases. The Proper Officers are required every week to inform the HPA Centre for Infections (CfI) details of each case of each disease that has been notified.

The Information Management & Technology Department within the CfI has responsibility for collating these weekly returns and publishing analyses of local and national trends.

The attending Registered Medical Practitioner, should fill out an offical Formal Notification certificate (from a pad supplied locally) immediately on diagnosis of a suspected notifiable disease and return it to where the pad was obtained (this could be the Local Authority (LA), Primary Care Trust (PCT) or Health Protection Unit (HPU)).

To contact your local HPU, use the postcode search or browse by region on the HPA homepage.