PESHAWAR: The allocation of Rs200 million for free treatment of cancer patients in the budget for the year 2026-27 is too little to provide medicines to 100 patients let alone 1,500 people, who are awaiting free medication, according to oncologists.

They said that shortage of funds had become the main issue due to which cancer patients could not receive free medication. “The new financial year will be the worst for cancer patients as the amount sanctioned in the budget will not be enough for treatment of 10 per cent patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” they added.

Oncologists told this scribe that the government should have allocated at least Rs2 billion to enable poor patients to seek free medical services but it cut the funds from Rs1.5 billion in 2025-26 to Rs200 million in 2025-26. “It is just a peanut given the rising cost of drugs,” they said.

They said that the prices of cancer medicines increased by 100 per cent in the last one year due to which they were waiting for increase in the funds to treat patients. “Most of the patients are too poor to afford the skyrocketing prices of cancer medicines,” a senior oncologist said.

Oncologists say 1,500 people in KP await free medication

According to data, more than 1,500 patients have been registered under free cancer treatment programme at Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) and Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) in Peshawar and Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) in Abbottabad.

Health experts said that even last year, government didn’t release the sanctioned funds of Rs1.5 billion that caused hardships to cancer patients and many of them died for want of drugs.

They said that government released only Rs820 million for the year 2025-26 and the remaining Rs680 million was not released despite repeated requests. “This year, we were expecting generous funding because Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi in May had announced funds for cancer patients,” they added.

Officials at health department said that cancer patients also availed free services under Sehat Card Plus (SCP) scheme of government. They said that last year 71,488 patients were admitted to hospitals and Rs3.421 billion was spent on their treatment.

However, oncologists said that only hospitalised patients could get services under SCP while free cancer treatment programme was meant for those, who were visiting OPDs for checkups and receiving drugs. “Those patients don’t need admission and therefore cannot get free treatment services on SCP,” they said.

In 2013, the government launched free treatment of blood cancer patients with Prof Abid Jameel, the then head of oncology department at HMC, as its head under public-private partnership programme with a drug manufacturing firm to enable poor patients to seek treatment for the disease.

Initially, only blood cancer patients were treated under the programme but in 2026 it was extended to all types of cancer. A total of 350 patients had received free drugs last year in ATH Abbottabad after which services were stopped owing shortage of funds, sources said.

Doctors said that about 650 patients had been awaiting treatment at KTH since last year and some of them managed to purchase medicines from their own pockets but majority couldn’t buy the costly drugs.

The government allocates funds to HMC from where 25 per cent amount is provided to KTH and ATH each. Earlier, patients from the whole province would visit HMC for getting medicines and examination but then government decided to start services in KTH and ATH too.

Prof Abid Jameel who pioneered free cancer treatment programme, told Dawn that cure rate of blood cancer patients was 85 per cent and about 70 per cent of all cancers that matched international standards.

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.

“Treatment of cancer is costly and lasts long so patients require regular medication and financial support,” he said. He added through that programme, the patients, who were in the last stage of cancer, also befitted to prolong their lifespan by one to two years.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2026