The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in Karachi received a $4.1 million grant from the Sindh government to replace its old Cyberknife technology.
The money will go to the Patients Aid Foundation (PAF), a nonprofit organization (NGO) that supports patients from low-income backgrounds at JPMC. Around 2,000 patients are on the waitlist for care at the JPMC’s Cyberknife facility, according to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, with the majority of them having brain tumors.
The technological advancement will enable the unit to manage up to 30 patients per day by reducing treatment duration to less than 15 minutes from over an hour before.
In addition, the Sindh Chief Minister (CM) announced an increase in the PAF’s annual funding from Rs. 340 million to Rs. 540 million as well as a larger number of additional hospital beds for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Sindh government and PAF have reached a 25-year agreement to manage various JPMC facilities and provide free medical care and diagnosis to patients from 15 other countries in addition to the rest of the country.
In contrast to private medical facilities, which generally charge up to Rs. 90,000 for a single scan, the JPMC is the only public hospital in Pakistan to offer free PET scans.
