LAHORE - Upholding the 19-year-old tradition, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC) continued to update its facilities and services in last 12 months to adequately utilize the latest developments in cancer treatment worldwide and to meet the challenges of its exponentially growing clinical workloads.
Providing the advanced cancer care to its patients irrespective of their ability to pay, the Hospital has spent almost Rs15 billion including Rs2.7 billion that was spent last year, according to a press release. The hospital admitted 9,211 last year and almost 175,000 visited the Outpatient Department while 30,000 patients received chemotherapy and 50,000 received radiotherapy and 20% increase in surgery procedures was also recorded during the last year. The SKMCH&RC is not only providing treatment to a large number of patients, but it is also working to further enhance its capacity to cater more patients and treating them much more efficiently as well.
In this connection, a new Short Stay Unit and a Discharge Lounge were opened and radiation bunkers were built to house the two new linear accelerators, and new MRI and CT scanners were also added. The induction of these machines has reduced the load of patients on the existing machines and now the Radiation Oncology Department has become one of the largest radiation oncology facilities in the region. By the time this newsletter reaches you, we will be preparing to open Inpatient-III consisting of 42 beds.
The construction of Pakistan's second Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, in Peshawar, is well underway. Five floors, including two basements of this proposed seven-story building, have been completed since the Stone Laying Ceremony of the Hospital in 2013. The Peshawar Walk-in Clinic has shifted recently at the site of Peshawar Hospital, in Hayatabad, thus marking the launch of the first service to be operational at SKMCH&RC - Peshawar.  Following the installation of the second PET CT scan at the Diagnostic Centre and Clinic in Karachi, SKMCH&RC was able to provide state-of-the-art services to the people of that region. A newest Walk-in Clinic, in Multan, ought to be functional in Ramadan, which will considerably facilitate the patients from southern Punjab and Balochistan, who at present are coming to Lahore.
In order to complete the ongoing projects and also to provide cancer treatment to the maximum number of patients, the Hospital has set a budget of Rs. 6.8 billion for the year 2014. Although it’s a huge target, the management of the Hospital has a firm belief in the generosity of its well-wishers to achieve it.