Pakistan,About the Children Cancer Hospital

Children Cancer Hospital is the premier facility exclusively dedicated to the care of children suffering with cancer regardless of their ability to pay. This is a project of Children Cancer Foundation, a registered Non-Governmental Organization established in December 1999 by a group of medical professionals, social workers and parents of children suffering with cancer. The unit has out patient clinics, 8 daycare and 14 in-patient beds. The unit provides comprehensive cancer care to all children on active protocol.

Burden of Palliative Care at Our Hospital

At present we see more than 200 newly diagnosed children annually. About 150 continue treatment at our center. About 10% of these need palliative care from the beginning because of the advanced nature of the disease and the constraint of resources. The available resources are first utilized for the more curable cancers. Around 25% of patients relapse during and after treatment. Most of these again are not offered a second treatment because of the lack of resources. With this background data, it is estimated that at a given time we have 35 to 50 children on palliative care.

Available Services

Once a child is on palliative care most of the parents look for alternative/ complimentary homeopathic or spiritual treatments, but they do come to us for blood tests, transfusion and pain management. Some parents continue treatment with us until the death of the child.

We provide pain medication and supportive treatment to these children, but we do not have:

• Specialized palliative care teams of doctors and nurses

• No psychological or social support

• No Pain control team

• No home care

What We Want To Do

We want to start a palliative care program at our center with a 2­4 bed unit. We would initially like to treat these children at our center with a specialized team of doctors, nurses, psychologist and social workers. During the next phase, we would like to provide home care within Karachi with the help of volunteers and social workers.

What Do We Need?

• Morphine availability

• Other drugs

• Doctors and Nurses

• Social workers

• Child Psychologists

• Volunteers

• Education and training of the Team

What Support Do We Need?

• Education and training of doctors and nurses

• Some funding for transport, salaries, drugs and administrative expenses