Morphine crisis

The worst thing a cancer patient can experience is a shortage of a drug that can alleviate pain. According to reports, thousands of cancer patients are going through painful agony as major healthcare facilities in Pakistan are not providing opioid drugs for pain relief. Such drugs include fentanyl and morphine. Terminal-stage patients are particularly affected. Per reports, oncologists are finding it hard to manage the situation across the country including at some of the top cancer hospitals and wards. Ideally, such drugs should be available in adequate quantities and no hospital should face any shortage of such drugs so that their patients do not have to suffer like this.

When government hospitals ask their patients to purchase pain-killers from the market, it is an abject failure of the state itself. Such opioids are not easily available in open markets and fentanyl and morphine are especially hard to come by for most people, particularly those belonging to the lower socio-economic strata. Normal pharmacies in the country do not keep stocks of such drugs and now even big pharmacies are out of stock. There is a cumbersome process of approval for purchasing such drugs which makes matters even more complicated for families that are already at pains to take care of their loved ones. The Federal Ministry of Narcotics Control has a major say in the purchase and sale of such drugs and any unapproved sale may land a pharmacy in hot waters.

There is a need to launch Opioid Substitution Therapy for injectable drug users in the country but it is facing undue hurdles. Opioid-based medicines are now a primary requirement for cancer treatment and they need proper streamlining. We are in a situation where doctors are unable to ease the sufferings of their patients just because the government is unable to make the process simple and smooth. The suffering of the families of cancer patients – especially of those terminally ill – must come to an end. They should not have to search for painkillers from pharmacy to pharmacy. Now that we have a new government in place, and soon a new health minister will also assume office, may we request the new health managers in the country to take up this matter on a priority basis?