India, Jan. 9 -- Residents serve as the institute's first responders - managing OPDs, wards, emergencies, trauma, investigations and patient coordination. The institute offers doctor of medicine (MD), master of science (MS), master of dental surgery (MDS) and Master of Chirurgiae (MCH) programmes. As part of these courses, residents are allotted duties in different wards. In the last decade, PGI's annual OPD footfall rose from 20 lakh to 27 lakh and admitted patients increased from 78,000 to 1 lakh. But the seats in MD/MS and other advanced PG courses haven't increased as much as the patient load. A final-year resident doctor from the orthopaedics department says the referrals from other institutes add to the burden. "At PGI, we often get cases referred from Government Multi Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, and Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. These are super specialties and colleges, which can manage a lot of cases at their level. But they still refer cases to PGI, which adds to our patient load." A senior orthopaedics professor noted that unlike AIIMS New Delhi, which can offload patients to Safdarjung Hospital, PGI lacks a comparable facility. "PGI is bearing the burden of the entire north India," he said. Faculty strength has increased over two decades, but resident seats have not. Though working conditions have improved over the years, weekly off discussions have gained relevance recently, he added....