Yadav admitted that lack of adequate number of faculty members and sophisticated instruments like laproscope and endoscope, resignation of some faculty members and inordinate delay in getting their replacement has resulted in less number of patients visiting the institute in connection with their treatment. He, however, denied that the revenue of the institute had declined.

Six faculty members, including a professor and an associate professor of nephrology, one faculty member each of endocrinology, pulmonary, reproductive biology and gastroenterology departments have resigned from the institute during the past one year. Obviously, less number of patients are now visiting these departments in connection with their treatment, Yadav said.

Departments having sufficient number of faculty members are still attracting large number of patients, he said. Yadav said every department must have at least three faculty members.

IGIMS sources said that against a sanctioned strength of 83 faculty members, the 360-bed institute has at present only 31 faculty members. In fact, during the past 20 years, the number of faculty members has never crossed 42.

Ruing the inordinate delay in the purchase of some sophisticated instruments, the IGIMS director said that the purchase of a semi-automatic instrument for bio-chemistry department was hanging fire since 1998.