Murad announces establishment of child cancer centres in Sukkur, Hyderabad

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that after establishing National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) satellites in different districts, he wants to establish satellites of the Child Cancer Care Centre at Sukkur and Hyderabad so that poor patients could access health care easily.

This he said while talking to a Child Aid Association (CAA) team led by its president Dr Tariq Shafi at the NICH where they have established a cancer centre. The chief minister’s visit was in connection with International Childhood Cancer Awareness Day being observed all over the world.

He was told that since 1999 the CAA had been running the Child Centre Care at the NICVD where 9,000 child cancer patients had been treated so far and another 7,000 patients were registered for treatment.

It is a three-year treatment course but there is a seven per cent dropout ratio when poor parents leave the treatment of poor children incomplete for want of travel expenditure. The chief minister said he wanted to establish satellite centres of Cancer Care Center for children in Sukkur and Hyderabad for the convenience of poor patients.

He urged the PAA team, including Dr Tariq Shafi, Prof Nizamul Hassan and Dr Salman Burney, to prepare a detailed plan, including space for hospital, required equipment with their cost and annual operational expenditures so that the plan could be implemented.

The CAA office-bearers told the chief minister that they were facing a shortage of funds to run the centre at the NICH, the rupee depreciation had increased the treatment cost, and the treatment of a child cost more than Rs900,000 over three years.

The chief minister said that his government would financially support the cancer centre, and directed the finance secretary to release Rs50 million he had announced for the Child Aid Association. “You are doing a real service to our ailing children of cancer. I am with you in your work.”

Talking to media just after his visit and meeting with the Child Aid Association’s team, Shah said the prices of medicine had escalated due to the depreciation of the rupee; therefore, the CAA needed financial support from the government and the philanthropists to continue working for their noble cause.

Replying to a question, he said that his government had filed a review petition in the Supreme Court for taking back the administration of the NICH, NICVD and JPMC. “I had personally requested the prime minister when he had visited Karachi to allow the Sindh government to keep the administration of these three hospitals, NICH, NICVD and JPMC,” he said and added, “Now a formal petition has been filed in the court and I am sure the court would consider our request.” Shah said that he had worked a lot for the uplift of the three hospitals and had given them ample budgets. “We feel we can operate them more efficiently.”