RMI launches one-stop breast care unit

Women can avail free mammograms for a month

PESHAWAR: The Rehman Medical Institute (RMI) has launched a ‘One-Stop Breast Care Unit’, where women can avail facilities of screening, diagnosis, and even operations — including reconstruction surgeries all under one roof.

The unit is said to be the only facility of its kind across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

In a statement issued by RMI on Wednesday, it pointed that per WHO data, one out of eight women will develop breast cancer at some point in her life, adding that there are approximately 100,000 new breast cancer cases in Pakistan every year — approximately 15,000 of these cases emerge in K-P.

A significant number of these patients, RMI said, do not seek any medical help. It added that most of the patients who do consult a doctor, are too late and cancer has spread to the body causing irreversible damage.

Assistant Professor and the Consultant Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast and General Surgeon Dr Amjad Ali stated that breast cancer patients usually suffer when trying to seek treatment since facilities for different phases of treatment are often located in different locations.

“A patient usually has to get a mammography done from one place, ultrasound from another and diagnosis from a third,” he said, adding that RMI offers all of these services under the same roof.

RMI Chief Executive Officer Shafiqur Rehman said that as an incentive, they were offering free mammograms at the Breast Care Unit for a month.

Minister for Health Shahram Khan Tarakai, who attended the inauguration, stressed the importance of such units and lauded RMI for its efforts to provide diverse and quality treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2017.