PESHAWAR, Feb 19: Work on Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, second in the country, has begun in Peshawar.

The hospital to be built in three phases over three years will spread over 50 kanals of land donated by the provincial government in Hayatabad Township in response to a proposal floated by Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust and Research Centre, Lahore in Dec 2009.

Later, the two signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June 2010.

According to the health department officials, the provincial government not only allotted land but also donated Rs50 million when the land was formally allotted to SKMT in March 2011 in light of the fact that majority of the patients could not afford expensive treatment of cancer.

“The hospital will be built in three years. In the first year, outpatient departments (OPDs) will become operational and that chemotherapy of patients will begin, while in the next year, it will offer diagnostic and radiology facilities. And within the next three years, it will be developed into a full-scale cancer hospital like the one located in Lahore,” an official told Dawn on Tuesday.

According to officials, the provincial government’s decision to award land to the proposed hospital has been taken considering that more than 40 per cent of the patients visiting SKMT & RC, Lahore belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), which showed high incidence of cancer among residents of the two regions.

They said the Rs2 billion land allotted to the hospital was originally to be sold for the construction of a five-star hotel but the government changed the plan to sell the land after receiving the request from SKMT & RC, Lahore.

“It will save patients from traveling to Lahore, which often deteriorates their conditions. The main problem faced by patients is that majority consult doctors at a later stage of the disease due to which it could not be cured,” an official said.According to officials, the cancer hospital in Peshawar will receive patients from KP, Fata as well as Afghanistan.

The patients don’t have facilities to visit and only the Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (Irnum) is not enough to cater to the burden of patients.

Officials said at present, around 65 patients from KP and Fata who were seen initially at the Walk-In clinic in Peshawar and referred to the SKMH & RC Lahore every month. After the building of the hospital in Peshawar, we assume that number of patients to be accepted for indoor treatment will increase by 33 per cent which means that their chances of survival would stand bright, they said.

After the commissioning the hospital would be able to receive for admission around 100 patients while more than 500 would visit it for follow-up treatment, they said.

Last year, the SKMH & RC showed that 64 (11per cent) patients from KP and Fata had breast cancer, 47 (eight per cent) from cancer of oral cavity while the rest 81 per cent had brain, thyroid, urinary bladders, skin and other types of malignancies, officials said.

Officials said KP and Fata recorded 16,000 new cancer patients every year at Irnum, which included 10.7 per cent breast cancer, leukemia in 10.5 per cent, head and neck cancer 9.7 per cent, esophagus cancer 8.8 per cent, skin 4.8, brain tumour 3.9 per cent, ovarian cancer 2.5 per cent, prostate gland cancer 2.3 per cent and soft tissue cancer 2.2 per cent.

The facility will have state-of-the-art equipment along with research facilities as the province desperately required research for academic growth of the doctors. “Through extensive research we can determine the prevalence of different type of cancers in different areas and can put in place preventive measures,” an official said.

Provision of training to doctors, paramedics and nurses is also part of the hospital, they said, adding that the SKMH is internationally recognised institute where the doctors could be trained on modern line.