Balochistan Health Secretary Saleh Nasar on Friday said the people's demand of a cancer hospital was going to be materialized soon as the government has allocated rupees three billion for the project to be executed after a period of one month.
He said the project's PC-I would be approved by Archaeology Department within one month and a team of technical professionals would visit Agha Khan and Shaukat Khanum Hospitals to follow the policies and administrative structure implemented there.
The cancer hospital in Quetta would be the first of its kind, primarily focusing diagnosis of the fatal disease as at present, most of the patients in the province were being referred to different hospitals in the country.
Saleh Nasar said cardiology centers will also be established in every medical college of the province. Saleh said the improvement in overall quality of the entire health sector was also under consideration for which formation of a Health Care Commission was also in the pipeline.
He said, "There was shortage of the doctors in the province and we are appointing the paramedical staff to ensure round the clock availability of the skilled staff to the patients. The government is making a Standardized Commission to take strict action against selling of low quality and illegal medicines in the province being imported from a neighbor country," he said.
Jan Muhammad a doctor from Loralai said it was good news that the province was going to have a cancer hospital as patients have to be referred to Lahore and Karachi. "Dozens of people lost their lives for not having proper treatment in the areas of their approach, "he regretted.
Baz Gul Kakar a resident of Laralai said his brother who was a cancer patient lost his life as his disease could not be diagnosed in initial stages due to lack of proper screening facilitates here. "He was shifted to Lahore but it was too late and he can't survive" he added. He appreciated provincial government's initiative to build a cancer hospital here and said it was great news for the long neglected people of the province.