Pune's Sassoon Hospital awaits approval for 504 beds, 380 posts vacant
Additional Beds
Pune: A major 11-storey hospital building at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, which played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been operating for nearly five years without formal approval for its 504 additional beds, further straining an already understaffed workforce.
Medical Dialogues had previously reported that despite being fully operational and serving hundreds of patients daily, the 11-storey building at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital (BJMC & SGH) in Pune is still awaiting official approval for 504 beds from the state’s Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD). According to hospital officials, the delay has severely affected recruitment, medicine procurement, and the delivery of essential patient services.
Also Read:Delay in 504-Bed approval hits patient care at Sassoon Hospital
Hospital authorities said a proposal seeking approval for the additional beds and the corresponding staff was submitted to the state Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD) in 2022. However, the proposal is still awaiting clearance.
Speaking to TOI, Dr Eknath Pawar, dean of BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital (BJMC & SGH), said, “We are currently functioning with only about 66% of the required staff strength at the hospital and medical college. The approved staffing is based on the beds available in the older hospital buildings. We had submitted a proposal to the MEDD seeking approval for 504 additional beds in the new building because the burden on the existing workforce has increased considerably. We are still awaiting a decision.”
According to officials, Sassoon General Hospital currently has approval for 1,296 beds in its older facilities. The sanctioned staffing linked to these facilities includes 2,359 staff members at the hospital and 732 at the medical college.
The 504 beds in the new tower, however, remain outside the officially sanctioned bed capacity.
Sassoon Hospital has around 2,350 approved posts across Class 1 to Class 4 categories, of which approximately 1,970 are currently filled, leaving around 380 vacancies.
Officials said the proposal requires clearance from both the MEDD and the state Finance Department. Approval would enable the government to sanction additional manpower and facilitate recruitment of doctors, nurses, technicians and support staff.
It would also allow funds to be allocated for medicines, medical equipment and other essential consumables required to operate the additional beds effectively.
The 11-storey building was originally conceived in 2009 following the swine flu outbreak. However, the project remained stalled for more than a decade before being expedited during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The facility was opened in 2020 as Pune faced unprecedented pressure on its healthcare infrastructure and required additional capacity for critically ill patients.
Today, the tower houses several major departments, including gynaecology, orthopaedics, pulmonology, paediatrics and radiology, and caters to a large patient load. "The institution has repeatedly pursued the matter with authorities. We have held several meetings with the medical education minister and sent multiple reminders to the department, but approval is yet to come,” Dr Pawar reiterated, reports TOI.
The prolonged delay has become a growing concern for hospital officials, who said the additional beds have increased the workload without a corresponding increase in sanctioned manpower.
