Bengaluru: More than 6.8 lakh patients visited the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) in 2025, making it the highest footfall in a year. This was revealed by Dr Pratima Murthy, director of Nimhans, Saturday during the institution day celebrations. She also said that more than 8,000 neurosurgeries were performed during the year.“Our main metric for success is patient care. The last five years witnessed the highest footfall in our history, after the dip during the Covid-19 period. Last year alone, we recorded over 6.8 lakh patient visits, which was the highest ever,” Dr Murthy said.
Speaking about neurosurgeries performed, she said, “We got referrals from very different parts of the country, seeking out our neurosurgeons… We also perform more than 20 lakh diagnostic tests across various specialities annually. The numbers speak volumes of the trust placed in our hands and also remind us of the responsibility that comes with the trust.”She further mentioned that the infrastructure at Nimhans is also expanding to meet the growing demands, with the new OPD complex, with a capacity of up to 5,000 patients a day, being established at a cost of Rs 440 crore, which was announced in Dec 2025. “We’re going to double our capacity going forward, and we will expand our outpatient services, provide it all under a single roof, so that the burden on patients to go from one part of the hospital to the other, in the outpatient area, is minimised,” she added.Nimhans also got more than 500 new funded projects and produced nearly 5,000 research publications in the last five years, which Dr Murthy called “the highest output in the last few decades”.Justice BS Patil, Lokayukta of Karnataka, who spoke at the event, criticised widespread deficiencies plaguing state govt hospitals, citing surprise inspections that uncovered poor staff attendance, including by doctors, inadequate infrastructure, inefficiency, corruption, and substandard services despite available infrastructure, while saying that the service at Nimhans draws a contrasting picture.“I know that there is tremendous pressure on this institute. The kind of infrastructure available, the beds available — the demand is a completely disproportionate ratio. Demand is more, availability is less. Doctors are fully occupied. But still, you are able to turn out the optimum work. Institutions like this need robust finance. Otherwise, the infrastructure will be insufficient to meet the demands,” he said.
