Daily Times

“It is a great privilege to work at Shaukat Khanum Hospital because here, you are part of an institution which is continuously growing and you get the opportunity to evolve with it.”

“After I completed my training in the UK, I wanted to move back to Pakistan. I had heard about a new cancer hospital that was opening in Lahore and considered it a great opportunity to return to my country. Dr. Nausherwan Khan Burki, who not only developed the master plan of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore but was also responsible for recruiting the consultants and other staff, interviewed me. Initially, he only offered me a part-time job but since I was intent on coming back to Pakistan, I accepted! However, between the interview and issuing of the contract, I was told that they wanted me full-time -and that was the beginning of an incredible journey for me.

My earliest and fondest memories are from when the Hospital first opened. In the beginning, we were a very small group of people who worked here, and we quickly got to know each other well. It was like a large family and that made it a particularly interesting and enjoyable time.

There were also some difficult times, fairly early on. Lots of people, including senior physicians in the city, repeatedly told us to leave, since the Hospital could not possibly survive. About eighteen months after we opened, a bomb went off in our outpatient area, killing several and wounding many more. Imran Khan came to the Hospital almost immediately afterwards, and I suggested that we must do whatever we could to ensure that the Hospital re-opened for patients the next day.

He agreed, and we moved the outpatient clinics up to what is now Inpatient-I, where they continued for the next several months. Other than this physical threat, the Hospital also survived a very rough financial period in 1997,when there was no money to pay salaries. Imran Khan sold his last plot of land and made sure everyone was paid so we had the staff to run the Hospital. These difficult times helped bring us all together, showed our resilience as a people, and showed that we can achieve anything we want to, in Pakistan, if we set our minds to it.

Inmore recent times, the construction of SKMCH&RC in Peshawar has been a particularly memorable milestone. Starting from the idea, the design and construction, through to the commissioning, it has been an honour and a privilege to have been involved. In a sense, we grew up with SKMCH&RC, Lahore but of course it had already been built when we joined.

In contrast, we saw the Peshawar Hospital come into existence from nothing and today, it is incredible that the dedication and hard work of the staff there has meant that it has recently received JCI accreditation. I hope to be fortunate enough to be involved with the third SKMCH&RC in Karachi, as we continue to build the Shaukat Khanum Healthcare System.

Based on what Shaukat Khanum Hospital has achieved in the past twenty-five years, there is no reason to assume that the Hospital will not continue to evolve in the next twenty-five years.

We hope, in the next twenty five years, to develop a hub and spoke model where much of our cancer care will be provided in smaller SKM centres nearer where people live, while our major hospitals in Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Quetta, and Bahawalpur will continue to serve as referral centres for complicated and advanced diagnostics and treatment. This will bring cancer care facilities closer to people’s homes, making it easier for them to commute and access these services.

I hope that, in the next twenty-five years, most, if not all cancer patients in Pakistan will have the option of going to a Shaukat Khanum cancer facility for their diagnosis and treatment.

Shaukat Khanum lets you grow and do as much as you are capable of doing. Our organization is a great place to work, where people are given all possible opportunities to grow and to develop, where talent is nurtured and where no one is held back.

I have always considered it a great privilege to work here and am grateful for being given the opportunity, over the last twenty-five years, to do so”.