Cancer patients rue governmental inattention

Having arrived in Peshawar after making the nearly five hour journey from Kurram, Gul Rukh Bibi was left dismayed for the third month running as the hospital did not have her daughter’s cancer medication.

The 60-year-old, Gul, accompanied by her daughter, has been knocking on the doors of Hayatabad Medical Complex in the provincial capital since June but their response has not changed, which has severely dented her hopes of seeing her daughter healthy again. “We cover this long distance every month only to hopelessly go back home without any medication,” said a visibly torn Gul Rukh.

She further informed this reporter that previously it was the coronavirus related travel restrictions which had stopped their access to medication and now the hospital had run out of it. “Our only hope is the medication provided by the government as we cannot afford to buy medicines privately.

My daughter is getting so weak and if she does not get her medicine soon, I will lose her.” According to the Hayatabad Medical Complex’s Oncology Department, the department has had no medicines since June of this year, as the government had not provided a fund for the cancer patients. As a result, the 9,000 patients of the disease, from all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), registered with the department are suffering.

Another such patient is Mukhtiar Khan’s 10-year-old son. Mukhtiar, who had made the six hour journey from Upper Dir to Peshawar, criticising the government said, “they always say they are providing free health care but for the last 3 months they have not provided us the basic medication for my son.”

A distraught Mukhtiar said his sin was being poor otherwise he would have been able to buy the pricey medicines to save his son’s life. “The Chief Minister and other higher ups should take notice and take immediate action,” the sobbing father implored. Apart from the 9,000 registered patients, there are 35,000 unregistered cancer patients across K-P; 56 % of this total population of cancer patients is female whereas 44 % are male, as per the oncology department.

Dr Abid Jamil, Head of the Oncology Department of the Hayatabad Medical Complex, when asked about these patients being left to fend for themselves while battling a life-threatening disease, said that they have been providing free medicines to more than 9,000 patients for the last few years and most of the patients are in a stage of recovery.

“The K-P government has made a PC-1 budget for the free medicines of cancer patients and it has been passed. The government will soon release Rs 900 million and when we receive the fund, we will start the free provision of cancer medication again,” informed Dr Jamil while talking to The Express Tribune.