LAHORE: Justice Muhammad Sajid Mahmood Sethi of Lahore High Court ordered that the chief secretary Punjab should resolve the issue regarding the closure of provincial health development centre in Lahore along with its 31 sub institutes. The judge on Monday announced the verdict on petition of Young Doctors Association President Dr Shahzad Shamas against the closure of provincial health development centre. The judge ordered the chief secretary Punjab to resolve the issue within 30 days between YDA and the Punjab governmentt health ministry. The judge on April 10 had reserved judgement on this petition. Petitioner counsel Sheraz Zaka submitted the closure of centre and its 31 sub institutes resulting in redundancy of trained staff which were utilised to train the doctors and nurses. He said that with a permanent closure of these institutions, the doctors and nurses would be deprived of training to tackle endemic disesaes like cholera, burns, dengue fever/viruses and other diseases. He alleged that the entire health budget was being spent on the Orange Train Project. He also said that because of these closures, there was no trained staff in burn units of hospitals located in Lahore and Multan to treat patients who suffered injuries from oil tanker explosions in Ahmadpur Sharqia. He asserted that without the approval of services and general administration, the provincial health development centre cannot be closed. He requested that the respondents be restrained from closing the provincial health development centre along with its 31 sub institutes. Earlier, in a reply on behalf of the Punjab government, it was stated that no burn unit was closed and the government was making every possible measure to make the burns unit operational along with trained staff. During the first six months of 2017, 473 doctors and nurses were given training to deal with patients on emergency matters. The reply further elaborated that the provincial health development centre was still functioning and the training of the staff including doctors and nurses was going on. The centre had been shifted from Birdwood Road to Poonch House which had been brought under the control of primary and secondary health. Published in Daily Times, April 17th 2018.