ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) has taken notice of the increasing breast cancer cases in Pakistan and remarked that public sector hospitals lack the facilities of mammography and other machines used in the detection of the cancer.
During the hearing on Tuesday in Apex Court, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed was of the view that all government run hospitals are lacking the facilities of mammography and other machines used in the detection of the cancer.
“The services provided at private hospitals is unaffordable for most women in the country,” the chief justice said and expressed dismay at the mechanism of government facilities.
According to a research by the World Health Organisation (WHO), every year nearly 40,000 women in the country succumb to the disease of breast cancer.
“The services provided at private hospitals is unaffordable for most women in the country,” the top judge said, expressing dismay at the mechanism of government facilities.
The court stressed the need to induct women specialists who can treat the disease, adding that a segregated area for women should be established in at hospitals.
The chief justice has summoned responses over from all federal and provincial health secretaries over the matter and adjourned the hearing.
Research reveals that breast cancer mortality rates in Pakistan are the highest in Asia largely because the disease is considered a taboo. At least 90,000 cases are reported in the country every year. Experts, however, say that this is just the tip of the iceberg as more than half of the breast cancer cases go unreported.
Read more: Six demolition companies ready to raze Nasla Tower in Karachi
