A grant of $4.1 million was recently announced by the Sindh Government for the construction of state-of-the-art Cyberknife machines and equipment at Jinnah Post Medical Centre (JPMC) in Karachi. In order to serve underprivileged patients at JPMC, this grant will be awarded to the Patients Aid Foundation (PAF), a non-profit organization. At the signing ceremony between the provincial government and PAF, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah stated that the current Cyberknife facility has a waiting list of approximately 2,000 patients.
As the head of the Cyberknife Unit, Prof Tariq Mahmood, explained, JPMC primarily treats brain cancers, but as the public has become more aware of the advantages of Cyberknife over surgery for stage-1 prostate cancer, the number of patients has rapidly increased. This new technology can treat up to 30 patients in a day in less than 15 minutes.
To combat the pressing situation, the Sindh CM announced an increase in the annual grant to PAF from Rs 340 million to Rs 540 million from the next financial year and added that the government has also notified the addition of beds in the hospital for the next fiscal year budget.
PAF and the Sindh administration have signed a long-term agreement for the operation of various facilities at the JPMC for a period of 25 years. A free diagnosis and treatment facility, otherwise inaccessible to the common man, will be improved through this collaboration. PAF and Sindh administration have jointly installed two Cyberknife and Tomotherapy machines.
