KARACHI: Sindh High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar on Saturday visited the radiation oncology section of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

The department is being run in a public-private partnership between the Patients’ Aid Foundation (PAF-JPMC) and the provincial government.

According to a press release issued by the Chief Minister House, PAF-JPMC board members Mushtaq Chhapra, Shabbir Diwan and Prof Tariq Mahmood briefed the chief justice about the Cyberknife facility.

H was informed that the it was the best and one of the safest ways to treat different forms of cancer. Three radiation therapy systems have been installed at the hospital in 14 years, reducing the treatment time from 150 minutes (in 2012 when the equipment was first installed) to 23 minutes in 2024.

It was also shared that the JPMC presently runs two tomotherapy units while the Bilquis and Abdul Sattar Edhi Breast Radiation Bay — equipped with two more tomotherapy units and the surfaced guided radiotherapy option — would be operational by the end of this year.

According to officials, this unit would be the first of its kind in the country where breast cancer patients requiring radiation would be treated only in five sessions instead of 16 or 28 sessions, as is current practice, due to the new technology’s precision. This section would have only female staff and treat up to160 patients a day.

“Justice Ghaffar expressed appreciation for the visionary collaboration of PAF-provincial government and the generous contributions of donors, which have made people’s access to this costly technology possible.

“He was of the view that other public sector institutions in the country should emulate this successful public-private partnership model to offer quality healthcare to the masses, free of charge,” said the press release.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2025