Zhezkazgan, 4 November, . A time capsule was laid in the foundation of a 100-bed oncology centre costing 29.6 billion tenge in Zhezkazgan: the ceremony took place during a working visit by health minister Akmaral Alnazarova to Ulytau region.
The new building, which will stand next to the regional multidisciplinary hospital, provides for 60 oncology, 25 gynaecology and 15 palliative beds. By design its area is almost 22,000 square metres, and it will house a diagnostic centre for 250 visits per shift and a linear accelerator for radiotherapy. Construction is to be completed in 22 months. More than 2,500 people in the region are registered with oncological diseases.
At present oncological care in Zhezkazgan is provided by the city department of the regional hospital: this year the number of beds there was raised 2.5 times, to 50. Patients receive drug treatment, some operations, diagnostics and palliative care, but there is no full cycle: radiotherapy and a number of operations in oncology are not performed in the city. Patient Amangul Begimbetova told the 24KZ channel that she has been treated at the hospital for about seven months, has some tests done in Karaganda, and will have to go there for surgery. “For 25 years the region had no separate oncology dispensary,” said Gabiden Akhanov, director of the hospital. In a year and a half the number of oncologists and related specialists in the region has more than tripled, and equipment purchases will continue in 2026–2027.
Besides the oncology centre, the minister inspected the construction of a new three-storey polyclinic in Zhezkazgan’s Western district: 8,400 square metres, diagnostic rooms, a day hospital, a laboratory, an outpatient surgery centre and a women’s clinic, with an ambulance station for nine crews to be built next to it. The district it will serve is expected to grow to 18,000 residents. Alnazarova said that more than 70 healthcare facilities are planned to be built in the country in the coming years.
What it means: Ulytau region, which has no radiotherapy and takes some tests and operations to Karaganda, will get an oncology centre with a full treatment cycle, but not sooner than in 22 months.
What we know now: The capsule was laid on 4 November, and the construction period under the project is 22 months. Until the centre opens, cancer patients in the region are treated in a 50-bed department without radiotherapy. When the equipment will arrive, the ministry specified only by year: purchases will continue in 2026–2027.
Background: Ulytau region was separated from Karaganda region in 2022, and Zhezkazgan is its centre. The minister linked the construction of more than 70 healthcare facilities to an instruction of the Head of State.
We have also reported on the Ministry of Health’s digitalisation map.
