PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has approved a special grant of Rs120 million for the free blood cancer treatment programme at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar.

The chief minister, who chaired a meeting on Thursday, vowed to provide all facilities to patients of the province, saying all required financial resources and other necessary facilities would be provided soon to HMC to enable it to continue free treatment of cancer patients of the province.

According to a statement, he also ordered establishment of a hospice at the complex for cancer patients. He also instructed the authorities to look into prospects of HMC’s collaboration with newly established Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital for the uplift of medical education and patients’ care.

Mr Khattak directed the authorities concerned to immediately release funds for free cancer treatment and without any interruption. He also directed the authorities to submit PC-1 for the first-ever hospice for terminal cancer patients at HMC.

Prof Abid Jameel, head of oncology department at HMC, on this occasion said that cancer treatment was extremely expensive and out of reach of most of the patients. He said that most of the cancer patients in the country belonged to young age group and feared that a large number of youth and manpower would be lost with considerable impact on national economy and industry if the disease was not treated properly according to international standards.

After successful completion of the first two phases of the programme during which 445 patients were treated, the third phase would be launched that would also include medicines for breast cancer, kidney cancer and other forms of cancer, Prof Abid said.

According to him, the cost of latest drugs is exorbitantly high for Pakistani patients. Per patient expenditure stood between Rs1.4 million to Rs3.6 million, he added.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2016