LAHORE: Scores of cancer patients on Wednesday blocked the Metro Bus track on Ferozepur Road after the Jinnah Hospital denied them medicines.

The patients, including women, gathered on the road with their prscriptions and staged a sit-in. They told media that they were registered with the hospital and were entitled to get free medicines.

They said Jinnah Hospital was the only government teaching hospital in Lahore which offered free medicines to registered cancer patients every month.

“Since the start of current month, hospital doctors and administration tell the patients that medicines are not available due to shortage of funds as the Punjab government has curtailed their annual budget,” said an elderly protester.

The patients raised slogans against the hospital administration and the government for their failure in providing them life-saving drugs which were highly expensive in the local market and not easily available.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2019