Pune: Rising Critical Patient Inflow Leaves Sassoon Hospital’s ICUs Stretched, 5-6 Critically Ill Patients Wait Daily

Pune, 11th August 2026: Sassoon General Hospital, a major referral centre for critically ill patients from Pune and several districts across western Maharashtra, is facing increasing pressure as the number of patients requiring intensive care continues to rise. Hospital authorities said ICU beds are frequently running at full capacity, with around five to six critically ill patients waiting for beds every day.

Hospital sources said the mismatch between the rising patient load and available beds often leads to angry confrontations between patients’ relatives and the hospital administration and medical staff. The hospital is also receiving patients who could otherwise be treated at local government healthcare facilities. Despite the availability of government hospitals and dispensaries across Pune district, many patients are referred to Sassoon even for minor treatment, adding to the burden.

Critically ill patients are also referred to Sassoon from the district hospital, Kamala Nehru Hospital attached to the Pune Municipal Corporation’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College, and Yashwantrao Chavan Hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad for further treatment. In addition, patients from several parts of Maharashtra are brought to Sassoon for specialised and critical care, further increasing pressure on its ICUs.

Sassoon dean Dr Eknath Pawar said the medical ICU is witnessing the highest demand among the various intensive care units. When an ICU bed is not immediately available, the hospital collects the patient’s relatives’ contact details and other necessary information and contacts them as soon as a bed becomes vacant. However, the increasing number of critically ill patients and limited ICU capacity have made patient management a major challenge, he said.

The issue came into focus after a patient, Gajanan Khalse, allegedly died on Sunday after an ICU bed was unavailable. Khalse was being treated in a general ward as no ICU bed was available. Sassoon superintendent Dr Yallappa Jadhav said Khalse was suffering from liver failure and was already in a critical condition.

“The patient’s condition was serious and, at the same time, all ICU beds were occupied, making it impossible to shift him to the ICU,” the hospital administration said.

Jadhav said Sassoon General Hospital was under considerable pressure and its bed capacity was relatively inadequate. While increasing the number of beds is not immediately possible, strengthening treatment at primary health centres and sub-centres across the district could help reduce the burden on Sassoon, he said.

Dr Pawar said the shortage of ICU beds at Sassoon has been a persistent issue, with beds remaining occupied even when critically ill patients are referred from outside. “Even if an extremely critical patient arrives, it is not possible to stop the treatment of patients already admitted to the ICU and accommodate the new patient,” he said.

He advised relatives of critically ill patients to check ICU bed availability before bringing them to Sassoon, particularly when they are being referred from other hospitals.

Sassoon currently has 162 ICU beds across various departments. These include 59 neonatal ICU beds, 10 paediatric ICU beds, seven surgical ICU beds, 10 cardiac ICU beds, 24 respiratory ICU beds, four burn ICU beds, six paediatric surgical ICU beds, 26 medical ICU beds and 16 trauma ICU beds.