Speakers demand cancer hospital in Balochistan

Patients in the province have to travel to other cities for treatment

QUETTA: Participants of a seminar have stressed the need for a cancer hospital in Balochistan, which could timely provide medical care to the ailing patients and reduce their travelling cost to other cities.
In an event organised by provincial health department in Cenar Hospital, health experts discussed the increasing cancer patients in the province.

Cenar Hospital Director Hafiz Khush Naseeb, Bolan Medical College Cancer Department Chairman Dr Zahid Mehmood, Balochistan Social Forum Chairman Younus Zehri, general secretary Imtiaz Shair, Dr Arif Achakzai, Dr Feroz Achakzai and Dr Nasrullah Mengal addressed the Seminar.



“Balochistan has a total of 1,500 cancer patients — of which 700 are women — and 800 men. But now children are also suffering from different types of cancer,” said Cenar Hospital Director Hafiz Naseeb.

He added that lack of treatment facilities for cancer patients in the province has compounded their problems.

It was highlighted that among many types of cancer, lung cancer has become common among male patients — females were being affected with breast cancer and youth with blood cancer.

The provincial government should make efforts to build a cancer hospital in Balochistan because patients were compelled to travel to Karachi and Lahore for their treatment, the speakers added.
They said that the provincial government should make sure land allocation of provincial cancer hospital and release Rs2 billion under Public Sector Development Porgramme for the hospital.