Work on Quetta cancer hospital to start next month

Balochistan health secretary says Rs3 billion has been allocated for the project


APP August 04, 2018
About 150,000 Pakistanis are diagnosed yearly with cancer. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

ISLAMABAD: Balochistan Health Secretary Saleh Nasar has said the people's demand for a cancer hospital is going to be materialised soon as the government has allocated Rs3 billion for the project to be executed after a period of one month.

He said the project's PC-I would be approved by Archaeology Department within one month and a team of technical professionals would visit Aga Khan and Shaukat Khanum hospitals to follow the policies and administrative structure implemented there.

Hospital in Balochistan pledged as cancer spreads

The cancer hospital in Quetta would be the first of its kind, primarily focusing on diagnosis of the fatal disease as at present most of the patients in the province were being referred to different hospitals in the country.

Nasar said cardiology centres would also be established in every medical college of the province.

He said the improvement in overall quality of the entire health sector was also under consideration for which formation of a Health Care Commission was also in the pipeline.

216 doctors for remote Balochistan districts

He said, "There is shortage of doctors in the province and we are appointing paramedical staff to ensure round the clock availability of the skilled staff to the patients. The government is making a Standardised Commission to take strict action against selling of low quality and illegal medicines in the province being imported from a neighbour country."

Jan Muhammad, a doctor from Loralai, said it was good news that the province was going to have a cancer hospital as patients had to be referred to Lahore and Karachi.

"Dozens of people lost their lives for not having proper treatment in the areas of their approach," he regretted.

Baz Gul Kakar, a resident of Loralai, said his brother who was a cancer patient who lost his life as his disease could not be diagnosed in initial stages due to lack of proper screening facilitates here.

"He was shifted to Lahore but it was too late and he couldn’t survive," he added.

He appreciated the provincial government's initiative to build a cancer hospital here and said it was great news for the long neglected people of the province.

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