LAHORE, June 14: Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed has called for collection of past research works to make them available to young researchers to avoid duplication and wastage of resources. Speaking at a meeting called to discuss research and professional training matters in the health department on Tuesday, he hoped local academic and research institutions would come forward to meet this gigantic task of gathering all the valuable work already done and make a pool or research data for the benefit of future scientists.

As the health sector was going forward on the track of improving services, he said the government would continue to foster opportunities for research through available resources and research institutions.

Dr Javed said the Punjab government was grateful to all donor agencies for providing additional resources through various development programmes. He said the WHO was providing a leading role in coordinating research initiatives in various disciplines of the health sector. He said the WHO was also providing valuable services for providing assistance to local institutions in areas of continuing medical education, improving quality of medical education, increasing the capacity of scientists in undertaking health research, and providing research grants and fellowships.

Saying that resources were important to undertake new research, the minister stressed that there was a need that researchers should have an aptitude for research, willingness to go for exhaustive work, dedication and zeal to come out with a solution. He also said that scientists in Pakistan were very much committed to conducting research and they would continue to provide leadership to generation of medical graduates, nurses and allied health sciences to carry forward the tradition.

The minister also vowed that the government would continue to provide resources to strengthen institutions, improve the quality of health care and bring it within the reach of the people.