Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif. PHOTO: APP
Cancer patients will be provided with free medication, announced Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at an event held in connection with World Cancer Day on Tuesday. He said the government would spend Rs1.5 billion for this purpose in a phased programme.
He thanked NOVARTIS, a multinational pharmaceutical company, for their gift of free medicines. Sharif said a cancer hospital would be built through a collaborative effort between the government and NOVARTIS.
The government would provide land and machinery for a cancer hospital in the province. He added that health authorities and medical experts should make recommendations for the cancer hospital project, and that immediate progress would be made in this regard. Sharif said he had recovered from cancer in 2003. He said the government would ensure that no cancer patient was deprived of medicines due to poverty.
The CM said he had planned to build a cancer hospital in the province during his last tenure but had been unable to because of the expenditure involved. He said treatment was not a problem for the affluent, and there was a need to focus on the poor.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 5th, 2014.
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Just look how sweet Punjab Shahbaz Sharif is for those people in need. I do hope many Pakistani students can learn in Germany and work for German medical companies. Second Germany is the biggest medical supplier in Europe. I hope people from Pakistan see great potential in Germany and Germanic Christian culture because there services are very tremendous in cancer. Cancer is one of the biggest problem but German Christian Catholics companies are helping people who are dying from Cancer. One of your dearest could die from cancer without free medicine. Please support the catholic church from Germany