ABBOTTABAD: The administration of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine Oncology and Radiotherapy (INOR), Abbottabad, here has directed the INOR Patients Welfare Society (IPWS) to pack up its pharmacy shop after it established its own pharmacy from where medicines are being provided to all patients on payment.

IPWS had established the pharmacy shop in 2013 and it had been providing free medicines to the poor patients. It also provided costly cancer medicines to hundreds of patients on discounted prices.

The IPWS has shown its grave concern over the INOR’s decision, saying that they could not abandon on a short notice their free medicine shop which was established for the cancer patients of Hazara and Azad Kashmir.

A letter dated 2/1/2023, copy available with this correspondent, had been issued by INOR administrator Bilal A Ghafoor for closing the IPWS pharmacy by Jan 7.

In its rejoinder to the INOR management, the IPWS stated that it had to recover a huge amount from the departments and organisations and as such it could not stop working immediately.

The society also stated that it had started working on the directives of the high-ups of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission about nine years ago. It claimed that the hospital could not run a pharmacy without a proper drug licence.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2023