HYDERABAD: Sindh health department has not yet provided PET Scan or Cyclotron machine for carrying out essential cancer tests to Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) Hyderabad branch even though health facility had made the request way back in April 2021.

The machine for positron emission tomography (PET) scan is used for determining level and spread of malignant cells in a cancer patient’s body. Oncology patients, mostly from lower Sindh region, had to approach Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) or Sindh Institute of Urology Transplantation (SIUT) in Karachi to have the test done.

Both the Sindh government health facilities are conducting the scan but given increasing load of patients every individual have to wait for several weeks for his or her turn, triggering frenetic attempts by patients’ attendants to jump the queue.

Then LUH medical superintendent had submitted to the health department a proposal for the establishment of an advanced medical facility for cancer diagnostic and treatment in Hyderabad in April 2021.

The proposal was forwarded by then secretary health Dr Kazim Hussain Jatoi (presently secretary finance) to health minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho who was to seek its approval from Sindh chief minister through a summary.

According to the summary, the MS had proposed the facility where PET CT/Cyclotron and linear accelerator equipment could be provided at a cost of Rs910 million or Rs855m each for two pieces. The cost must have escalated since then because the machines have not yet been provided.

On her part, Dr Pechuho had approved installation of Rs910m worth PET Scan machine in the first phase in 2021-22 and the second machine in 2022-23. However, since then two fiscal years have passed and the third fiscal year, in a row, is nearing closure but no headway has been made in this regard.

Caretaker health minister Dr Saad Niaz remained unaware of the proposal and he suggested that “before getting the machine the hospital must have a good trained radiologist”. And Dr Saad’s suggestion was not entirely wrong given past experiences of (mis)handling such expensive machines like angiography in the hospital.

LUH caters to patients from entire lower Sindh including Tharparkar. Even patients from upper Sindh districts end up in LUH’s city and Jamshoro branches. Given healthcare needs of such a huge load of patients, the hospital administration was said to have prepared a list of machines and equipment needed for different departments of the hospital and share it with health department in 2023 but no major progress was seen on the issue during caretaker regime’s tenure.

A conflict arose between outgoing caretaker Sindh chief minister Justice (retired) Maqbool Baqar and caretaker health minister Dr Saad Niaz as the latter complained of being cornered by the former. Secretary health Mansoor Abbas had also written a letter to Sindh chief secretary against the minister in January. Resultantly, health facilities’ working was affected. Mansoor did not respond to repeated calls this correspondent made to him to seek his comment on present status of the April 2021 summary.

“I think PET Scan is all the more important for LUH so that we can at least curtail financial cost of a cancer patient,” said a senior oncologist Dr Mohammad Ali Memon.

Dr Memon had retired from federal government’s National institute of Medicine and Radiotherapy (NIMRA), Jamshoro, after serving as oncologist.

According to him, after a PET Scan was done the oncologist rarely went for other tests like ultrasound, memo graph etc. “Rs125,000 is being charged for a PET Scan in Karachi’s top private hospital while another hospital is demanding Rs85,000 per patient,” he said. He was of the view that after adding other costs of cancer treatment the total cost came to a million rupees or more.

Surgeon Dr Arshad Abro believed that since several patients were advised to have this test done if the facility was made available here it would reduce logistical cost of patients considerably.

“All potential cancer patients’ tests can be handled through these two machines,” he informed and said that he was also trying to make sure that the machines were made available in LUH.

He believed that as per safe estimates around 100 patients were referred to Karachi for this test. He was making another push through the MS to request health department to requisition the machine, he said.

Dr Memon said that PET facility must be ensured at all cost in LUH so that patients from Hyderabad, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparkar, Badin, Sujawal, Benazirabad and Sanghar patients could benefit from the facility.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2024