Patients in Sindh face hardships as no single public hospital provides complete cancer treatment.
Cancer patients across Sindh, including Karachi, are facing major challenges, as no public hospital in the province offers comprehensive treatment for all types of cancer under one roof.
As a result, patients must visit multiple facilities for surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, while many terminally ill individuals are left without proper palliative care to ease their suffering, according to The News.
Health officials and oncologists warn that this fragmented system forces patients to move between hospitals, causing treatment delays and adding significant financial and emotional strain to families already battling the disease.
According to health experts, Pakistan sees over 180,000 new cancer cases annually, with Sindh accounting for a large share due to its dense population and more advanced diagnostic facilities that detect cancers more frequently than other regions.
Despite Karachi being the country’s largest city and the healthcare hub of Sindh, no single government hospital currently offers comprehensive cancer care—including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and palliative services. Consequently, patients often start treatment at one facility but must be referred elsewhere for other aspects of their therapy.
A recent case involving a 55-year-old man from Hyderabad diagnosed with stomach cancer highlights the struggles faced by many families seeking treatment in Sindh.
According to a recently retired senior official from the Sindh health department, the patient was first referred to the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) in Karachi after his diagnosis in Hyderabad. After visiting SIUT’s Reagent Plaza facility and its main hospital near Civil Hospital Karachi, he was advised to seek treatment at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
At JPMC, doctors examined him in the cancer ward but referred him to the Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (Kiran), a specialized cancer center run by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.
Upon reaching Kiran, the hospital administration sent him back to JPMC after determining that his cancer had spread to other organs and reached stage four, making curative treatment unlikely.
The health official noted that oncologists at JPMC then advised the patient’s family to seek palliative care at Aga Khan University Hospital, as no public hospital in Sindh provides dedicated palliative services for terminal cancer patients.
After being shuffled between hospitals for several days, the patient returned to Hyderabad and is now spending his final days at home,” the official said. “Cancer causes immense pain and suffering, yet in Pakistan’s largest city, no facility could provide relief for his symptoms.”
The lack of palliative care services in public hospitals means that many patients with advanced or metastatic cancers endure their last days in severe pain without proper symptom management.
Another major challenge is the limited availability of strong pain medications. Doctors note that oral and injectable morphine, the standard treatment for severe cancer pain, is rarely accessible in public hospitals. Fentanyl patches, used to manage chronic cancer pain, are also difficult to obtain.
Strict regulatory controls and limited supply prevent many hospitals from stocking these medicines or procuring them efficiently, leaving patients to suffer from uncontrolled pain.
Officials within the Sindh health department acknowledge that cancer treatment services in Karachi are fragmented across multiple institutions.
At Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), patients can undergo cancer surgery, while chemotherapy is often arranged through financial assistance programs such as Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal for those unable to afford costly medications. The hospital also houses one of the country’s major radiotherapy facilities, but it lacks structured palliative care services.
Despite the growing cancer burden, Sindh has yet to establish a comprehensive public-sector cancer hospital that provides diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and palliative care under a single roof.
This comes even as the provincial government has spent hundreds of millions of rupees supporting specialized procedures, such as bone marrow transplants, at institutions including Dow University of Health Sciences and the National Institute of Blood Diseases in Karachi.
Repeated attempts to reach Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho through her personal staff were unsuccessful. She has, however, previously stated that Sindh boasts some of the country’s best healthcare facilities and that the province’s achievements in the health sector often go unrecognized.
Meanwhile, patients and their families continue to suffer under the fragmented healthcare system, often having to sell property, borrow money, or rely on charitable support to afford treatment.
Health experts warn that without integrated cancer treatment centers and proper palliative care services in public hospitals, thousands of patients in Sindh will keep facing immense challenges—not only in accessing treatment but also in finding relief from the severe pain caused by advanced stages of the disease.
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