PESHAWAR: According to the report submitted by the Health Department to the apex court on the suo motu notice by the chief justice on the Breast Cancer Treatment Facilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), there are only 13 mammography facilities and 26 doctors in KP for breast cancer.
The report said that one machine each is installed at Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad, Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar, Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar and Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar. The remaining machines are also installed private hospitals in Peshawar while the remaining districts do not have any mammography facilities. The report will be submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan after the chief justice took suo motu notice. The report also stated that four machines are available in cancer treatment hospitals under Atomic Energy Commission.
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According to the report, there are only 26 specialized doctors for treating breast cancer and out of them only 14 are female doctors. The report added that on the order of the court, it has been decided to install mammography machines and doctors in all the district headquarters hospitals of the province for diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Along with this, other medical equipment will also be provided to hospitals at regional levels. It has been proposed by the Planning Commission that the funds in this regard will be included in the budget for the next financial year.
Sources said that adue to lack of diagnostic facilities, patients often diagnosed with the disease at the very last or middle stage, which is why hundreds of women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa die every year due to this treatable disease.
The top judge has directed the government to collect details regarding the breast cancer diagnosis facilities at district level.
A three member of Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed on Tuesday slammed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s “dismal” performance, saying that no work has been carried out in the public sector development.
The bench was hearing a suo motu case related to the rising number of breast cancer cases in the country. During the hearing, Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt said that the KP government has allocated Rs3 billion for sitting up a breast cancer facility and PC-1 of the project has been prepared. But Justice Gulzar remarked that “You only make PC-1. There is no implementation.”