Medicine supply to only cancer hospital in Balochistan halted

Balochistan [Pakistan], February 20 (ANI): The medical supply to CENAR Cancer Hospital in Balochistan has been stopped by the Pakistan administration for the last two months, Pakistan vernacular media, The Balochistan Post reported.
According to the reports, Balochistan's only cancer hospital's medical supply has been stopped due to the financial crisis in Pakistan. the medical supply was under the Balochistan Endowment Fund (BEF).
Talking about the case, Dr Feroz Khan Achakzai, a senior doctor of the CENAR hospital said that more than a hundred cancer patients come to the hospital and return home with the frustration of not getting medicines. He said that currently, more than 2,000 cancer patients are under treatment at the Bolan Medical Complex Hospital and the CENAR hospital.
The cancer disease continues to spread in Balochistan and it has claimed scores of human lives during the last few years. In CENAR hospital, most of the patients belong to the downtrodden class since middle-class and elite-class people go to Karachi or the Shaukat Khanum memorial hospital in Lahore for medical treatment.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's health department officials have refused to talk to the media in this regard. Doctors and patients have no clue about the non-supply of medicines, vernacular media reported.
Earlier, The Express Tribune reported that the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan is struggling to replenish its supplies amid a shortage of essential life-saving drugs and other surgical instruments.
The economic crisis faced by Pakistan is caused by a number of factors, including the refusal of commercial banks to issue new Letters of Credit (LCs) on account of a shortage of US dollars that have impacted drug companies, as per The Express Tribune report.
Pharmaceutical companies have been facing difficulty to maintain stocks of essential life-saving drugs. As experts have warned of the economy "sinking into near-paralysis", top pharmaceutical firms are facing difficulty to get raw materials to manufacture drugs while being forced to reduce production as patients suffer in hospitals, The News International reported citing sources.
The crisis comes as Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves touched an eight-year low of USD 4.3 billion and talk with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hang in balance.
Due to the ongoing economic crisis, Pakistan is unable to buy basic imports, including medicine and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), several vaccines, and biological products for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, as per the news report. (ANI)