Construction at full pace for third SKMCH&RC in Karachi

KARACHI: Construction work for the new Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Karachi, delayed earlier in the year by the COVID-19 pandemic, re-started in September 2020.

Work is underway at full pace and the project is expected to be commissioned in less than three years, at a total cost of Rs. 13 billion. In a press-briefing organised in this regard, Dr. Muhammed Aasim Yusuf, the Chief Medical Officer and the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centres (SKMCH&RC) in Pakistan, shared the latest updates on the status of this project.

Dr. Aasim Yusuf explained the urgent need for more specialised cancer centres in Pakistan. He said there are over a hundred and seventy thousand new cancer cases in Pakistan each year and while “The SKMCH&RC in Lahore and Peshawar continue to provide financially supported treatment to over 75 percent of cancer patients admitted for treatment each year, the huge number of new cancer patients means that we are able to serve only a proportion of those suffering from cancer in Pakistan.

The treatment of cancer is often a long and arduous process, with many patients having to make repeated, and expensive, trips over long distances in order to seek treatment.****