A Hope For Cancer Patients in Pakistan

With only 2% GDP allotted to the health sector, Pakistan is a country with serious deprivation in health care facilities. Among one hundred ninety-five nations in the world, Pakistan's health care system stands at 154th place. (Source)

Due to the poor quality of the government's health care services, the treatment for several infectious diseases is not attainable for a great number of people.

70% of the population of Pakistan is earning less than 2$ a day. (Source). For such a population paying high fees of private health care resources is impossible.

A country where the diseases like dengue, cholera, TB, malaria, typhoid and dog’s bite prove to be fatal, an ailment like cancer was a case of complete hopelessness.

A patient with cancer had nowhere to go but to wait for the sickness to increase at the level of taking one’s life. A calamity for the patient and his/her loved ones.

Until 1994, there was not a single institute where cancer could be treated. Only those people who could afford a trip to abroad were able to get the treatment. For a vast majority of the population, such an access was merely a dream.

The irony was that not only the treatment was not available, but also there was no diagnostic facilities. Consequently, the sickness would come to acknowledgment at the point where it would surpass the treatment effectiveness.

In 1989, there stood a man for the cause of building an institute where the treatment and diagnoses for cancer would be provided. The man was none other than the former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan.

He got the inspiration for the project from his mother’s death. First a charitable organization, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust was established which was followed by the establishment of a cancer hospital and research center.

Imran Khan named the organisation and hospital after his mother’s name, Shaukat Khanum.

Building such a hospital with state-of-the-art technology was not easy, especially when there is a great of lack of resources and abundance of naysayers around you.

Imran Khan says, “There was a time when I was told that building and running a cancer hospital in Pakistan, where the majority of patients would be treated free of charge, was impossible. Your continuing support over the years has silenced the nay-sayers and has shown that the Pakistani nation is capable of overwhelming generosity and compassion.”

After fundraising for five years (since 1989 to 1994) and donating the prize money (that he got from winning 1992 cricket world cup) of eighty five thousand pounds, Imran Khan was successful in standing a building for the hospital in Lahore. It went fully operational in December, 1994.

Throughout its journey, Shaukat Khanum Hospital provided free-of-cost treatment to 75% of the patients. No discrepancy of facilities has been reported among those who paid for the treatment and who do not. (Source)

It has indeed been a great blessing for the poor population for Pakistan for whom it has been really hard to get the treatment even for the elementary diseases.

Many of the needy patients that reached the hospital belonged to Northern areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Owing to the reason, another campus of the hospital was built in Peshawar that went operational in 1915.

The quality of facilities provided in the hospitals are of top-notch. They are continuously being upgraded to meet the latest technological requirement.

Not only structural and technical facilities are of high quality but the behaviour of staff is quite kind and considerate.

Along with medical facilities, food is also provided to the needy patients.

The hospitals provide OPD Chemotherapy services 24/7.

Due to its clinical excellence, the hospital achieved full Enterprise Accreditation by Joint Commission International (JCI) in 2022. With this award, the hospital became the second in the world to have this achievement. The award was given after the strict survey for three weeks.

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust didn’t freeze its activities but kept on growing over time. Building of another campus of the hospital is in progress in Karachi. The hospital is expected to go operational in 2023. It is the largest of the three, built on an area of 1 million square feet.

The new campus would provide facilities to the down trodden masses of Sindh and Baluchistan along with the most-populated city of the country, Karachi.

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust is present in 65 cities of the country in various forms including hospitals diagnostic Centres, cancer screening centres, and Laboratory Collection Centres.

The humanitarian efforts of the Trust are being recognized by World Health Organisation.

For many people, it might just be a hospital but for the victims of cancer it is a symbol of hope. There are plenty of cases where the poor people have seen their loved ones coming back to life despite having deprivation for resources. The hospital means life to them.

The truth is that the hospital is a source of pride for the country. It is a proof of the generosity of Pakistanis. It is a proof of sincerity and kindness existing in the country. It is a hope that Pakistanis have the ability to overcome challenges provided a sincere leadership is there.

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The post is written as s participation in the contest organized by @spiritsurge in order to bring light to @hivepakistan.

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Some of the resources are mentioned as hyperlink within the article. Other resource include
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Imran Khan image source
Shaukat Khanum logo
Header Image is created by me on Canva.