KARACHI, Jan 23: The first government-run bone marrow centre in Sindh will start functioning at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) Karachi in March.

The Child Aid Association president and former director of NICH, Prof Nizamul Hassan, said on Friday that the administration of the institute had allotted them the third floor of institute’s building to establish the bone marrow centre.

He said patients would be treated free at the centre, adding that private hospitals charged approximately Rs1.5 million for this facility.

The association would run this centre and for this purpose, he said, they had imparted special training to a doctor and a nurse with the help of Army Bone Marrow Transplant Centre, Rawalpindi.

He said they had 10 more qualified doctors and nurses. However, they still lacked services of trained laboratory technicians, he added.

The National Institute of Child Health had 12 beds for children suffering from cancer, while more than 200 children suffering from cancer came to the hospital every month, he said.

He said more beds were being arranged. He said the new centre would have 80 beds.

He urged the government to provide the association a separate premises and staff so that better facilities could be provided to patients.—PPI