‘Second cyberknife facility to start functioning at JPMC’
A ‘Jinnah Institute of Cancer and Research Centre’ will be established at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in the next few years where state-of-the-art facilities for the treatment of various types of cancers will be provided free of charge. Also, the institute is in the advanced stages of acquiring the second cyberknife facility very soon.
Eminent radiologist and health expert Prof Tariq Mehmood made these announcements while addressing a gathering organised in his honour at the PMA House on Saturday. “Philanthropists and donors have pledged millions of dollars and billions of rupees for the establishment of Jinnah Institute of Cancer and Research Center at the JPMC and hopefully the first phase of the project would start functioning by 2021,” he said.
The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) had organised the ceremony to acknowledge the services of Prof Dr Tariq Mehmood, head of the Radiology Department at the JPMC, which was attended by a large number of healthcare professionals and experts, including JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali, Sindh Health Care Commission Chief Executive Officer Dr Minhaj Qidwai, PMA Secretary General Dr Qaiser Sajjad, Prof Tipu Sultan, Dr Mirza Ali Azhar and Dr Malik Hamidullah from the NICVD.
A standing ovation was given to Prof Mehmood, who added dozens of x-ray machines and ultrasound equipment, several MRI and CT Scans, installed PET Scan and a Cyclotron facility at the JPMC, and, above all, he acquired a cyberknife machine for the treatment of cancer patients.
Prof Mehmood gave a presentation on the ongoing and future healthcare projects at the JPMC in collaboration with the Patient Aid Foundation. He maintained that the JPMC had now the country’s best radiology and treatment facilities, which were being offered free of charge to people from across Pakistan.
He observed that instead of establishing and supporting new health institutions in the private sector, the philanthropic segment of the society should strengthen the existing health infrastructure in the public sector, which could effectively meet the healthcare needs of the people of Sindh, especially Karachi.
“The civil society of Karachi is the most generous philanthropic segment in the country and it is supporting scores of healthcare projects in both public and private sectors. It is hoped that it would continue supporting the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in establishing more modern health facilities for the needy and deserving patients.”
Prof Mehmood added that currently 1,800 patients were being served at the Radiology Department of the JPMC on a daily basis, and the number would be doubled in the years to come as more scanning and treatment facilities would be inducted into the department.
“We are in the process of acquiring the second cyberknife facility very soon while more state-of-the-art scanning and imaging facilities would be added to our existing services in the years to come. All this is being done with the financial support from the civil society of Karachi, which is bearing 95 percent of the cost of these equipment and their running costs.”