Karachi's Shaukat Khanum hospital 'on target to open in 2023': PM Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday reported visiting the construction site of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) Hospital in Karachi, saying that the project is "on target to open in 2023".

The prime minister said that the cancer hospital will be "twice the size" of SKMT Lahore and "will be equipped with all the latest diagnostic and treatment facilities".

"It will service Sindh and southern Balochistan," he added.

Back in November, the prime minister had reported feeling pleased watching construction start on the Karachi branch of the hospital.

"I have this great feeling watching construction start on SKMT Karachi. InshaAllah, it will be the biggest cancer hospital in Pakistan as well as being equipped with the latest machines," he wrote at the time, while sharing pictures of the construction site.

The prime minister broke ground for the hospital, located in Karachi's Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area in 2016.

The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, established in the memory of PM Imran Khan's mother who succumbed to cancer in 1985, has established a number of hospitals, laboratories, and research centres all over Pakistan.

The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore was the first specialised cancer facility in the entire region. It was inaugurated on December 29, 1994. The hospital's Peshawar branch was inaugurated on December 29, 2015.

SKMCH&RC has walk-in clinics in Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar and diagnostic centres in Karachi and Lahore.