PESHAWAR: Lack of funds has been hampering free treatment of cancer patients at three major medical teaching institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to official sources.

Health Secretary Shahidullah Khan said he was in touch with planning and development department for re-appropriation of funds to resume treatment of cancer patients.

However, more than 1,000 poor patients already registered for cashless treatment are awaiting drugs at Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) and Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Peshawar, and Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH), Abbottabad.

Sources told this scribe that government was required to release Rs1,500 million for free treatment programme for the year 2025-26 but it had released Rs820 million so far and remaining Rs680 million was yet to be provided for the scheme.

Health secretary says he is in touch with P&D dept for release of amount

Free treatment of blood cancer patients was started in 2013 under the leadership of Prof Abid Jamil, the then head of oncology department at HMC, under public-private partnership programme with drug manufacturing firm to enable poor patients to seek treatment for the disease.

Initially, only blood cancer patients were under the programme but three year later it was extended to all types of cancer patients. The programme suffered setback after the retirement of Prof Abid. However, the programme was not only restarted but also extended to KTH and ATH to facilitate the patients, who used to visit HMC for drugs, after he became health adviser in the interim government.

In ATH, a total of 347 patients have received free drugs from August 2025 till now and the hospital has received medicines in December 2025 for the last time but now the stock is near exhaustion.

“Some of the basic drugs in the hospital have completely exhausted and authorities concerned are sending requests for provision of medicines, but to no avail,” said sources.

In KTH, the situation is no different as there is no stock available and 623 registered patients are waiting to get medicines. KTH director Dr Sajjadullah Dawar said that the hospital administration was in the process to start giving free drugs to patients under Sehat Card Plus scheme free of cost. “We have got oncology services and cancer patients will soon start getting free drugs,” he added.

Under the programme, the government allocates funds to HMC from where 25 per cent amount is provided to each KTH and ATH.

HMC director Dr Gulzar Ahmed Khan said that that there was shortage of funds owing to which patients were not getting drugs. “We are awaiting funds and have sent request to health department. As soon as funds are made available, free medication will resume,” he added.

He hoped that the government would release funds soon for the purpose.

Oncologists associated with the free medication initiative told Dawn that more than 10,000 patients were benefitted from the programme since its beginning. Blood cancer patients were treated with 85 per cent cure rate while the percentage was around 70 per cent for all cancers, which matched international standards, they said.

They said that extension of the programme to ATH benefitted people not only in Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur districts of Hazara division but also patients from Kohistan and Gilgit-Baltistan regions.

They said that in the past patients had to visit HMC in Peshawar every month for follow-up treatment and medicines which was difficult for them, especially for the people living in faraway areas.

They said that treatment of cancer was costly and lasted long, so patients required regular medication.

The oncologists said that the programme was for all patients and the hospital couldn’t deny treatment to those, who were in the last stage of cancer and began treatment to prolong their lifespan by one to two years.

However, stoppage of free medication might result in death of many patients because drugs were very expensive, they added.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2026