Laigude Hospital in Pune’s Vadgaon Khurd serves a dense cluster of neighbourhoods, but the municipal facility is operating well below the capacity suggested by the equipment and infrastructure accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic. The hospital continues to provide outpatient care, maternity services and child immunisation, yet idle oxygen plants, unused ventilators, limited diagnostic space, medicine shortages and the absence of inpatient and surgical facilities are forcing residents to depend on other hospitals.
The tension at the hospital is not simply about one facility’s missing equipment. It reflects a recurring urban governance problem: public assets are created quickly during a crisis, but their operational future is often left unclear once the emergency recedes. At Laigude Hospital, the question now is whether the Pune Municipal Corporation will invest in converting an existing public facility into a fuller multispeciality hospital or allow parts of it to move towards private operation.
According to the Lokmat – Pune report, 33,805 patients received treatment at the hospital between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026. Its outpatient department sees between 100 and 120 patients a day. A case paper costs Rs 10, while senior citizens and pregnant women receive free or discounted treatment. Patients covered under the urban poor scheme are provided medicines without charge, the report said.
These numbers establish the hospital’s continuing role in the local health network. The facility serves residents from Khadakwasla, Kirkatwadi, Nandedgaon, Dhayari, Raikar Mala, Vadgaon Budruk, Manikbaug and Narhe. These are densely populated areas where the distance to a public hospital, the cost of private care and the availability of timely diagnostics can directly influence whether residents seek treatment early or delay it.
The hospital also provides round-the-clock normal delivery services. The report said between 10 and 12 deliveries take place every month and 60 to 70 pregnant women undergo consultations. More than 250 children are vaccinated each month, although residents have reported that some vaccines, including rotavirus and Japanese encephalitis doses, are not consistently available.
During the pandemic, Laigude Hospital treated more than 18,000 patients and conducted over 100,000 RT-PCR tests, according to the report. Fifty oxygen beds were created through corporate social responsibility funding and municipal support. An oxygen-generation project using air was also established, described in the report as the municipal corporation’s first such project. Both oxygen-generation plants are now reportedly shut.
Nine ventilators received through the PMO fund are also lying unused, the report said. Equipment intended for a male sterilisation operating theatre has not been put into service either. The presence of such equipment does not by itself create hospital capacity. It requires trained personnel, maintenance contracts, power and oxygen systems, infection-control procedures, operating protocols and a regular flow of patients. The gap at Laigude therefore appears to be as much administrative and operational as physical.
The hospital’s medical officer, Dr Bhagwan Patil, told Lokmat that the outpatient department receives 100 to 120 patients daily and that antenatal care, delivery services and child immunisation are functioning. He said staff were making an effort to provide the best possible service with limited resources. That account is important because it distinguishes between a facility that has stopped functioning and one that is functioning under constraints.
The limitations become more visible when patients need services beyond basic outpatient care. Laigude Hospital does not have inpatient services or an operating theatre. Pregnant patients requiring caesarean sections or more intensive treatment must be referred to Kamala Nehru Hospital, Sonawane Hospital or Sassoon Hospital, according to the report. Residents have demanded a dedicated operating theatre, caesarean delivery services, permanent specialist doctors, modern equipment and adequate medicine stocks.
The absence of inpatient capacity changes the hospital’s role in the wider public health system. It can receive patients, assess them and provide some treatment, but it cannot retain those who need observation, surgery or extended care. Every referral then transfers the burden to another institution. For residents, that can mean additional travel, delays, a new registration process and the cost of arranging transport, particularly during pregnancy or an emergency.
Diagnostics are another pressure point. The hospital offers blood and urine tests at lower rates, but the laboratory reportedly operates from a single room. Staff told the newspaper that managing blood tests for children in the limited space was difficult. A resident also described being sent back when she and her sister sought sugar and thyroid tests after being told that a referral from a Laigude doctor was required. The report said staff cited the presence of a single testing table and advised them to use a private facility instead.
This illustrates how nominal availability and practical access can diverge. A laboratory may be listed as a service, but a single room, limited equipment, queue management rules and referral requirements can make it inaccessible to the people it is intended to serve. For an urban public hospital, the quality of the patient journey matters as much as the presence of a service on paper.
Medicine availability has also emerged as a concern. The report noted shortages of modern medicines for diabetes and blood pressure treatment, along with a lack of specialist doctors. These are not isolated or short-term medical needs. Hypertension, diabetes, pregnancy care, immunisation and basic diagnostics require continuity. Interruptions can push patients towards private providers or cause them to postpone care.
The hospital’s physical environment adds another layer to the problem. Old furniture and accumulated waste have reportedly been stacked on the premises. Such conditions affect the perception of safety and cleanliness, while also raising questions about storage, housekeeping and the use of available space. The report does not establish the cause of the accumulation or the duration for which it has remained, but it records a visible maintenance failure inside a health facility.
The debate over privatisation has intensified because of these shortcomings. The report said the municipal administration has, for some time, considered handing over part of the hospital to a private multispeciality hospital. A similar attempt in October 2020 was opposed by local residents and stopped by elected representatives at the time. Current discussions reportedly involve operating the upper floors privately while retaining the ground floor, a proposal that has generated opposition among residents.
Local corporator Komal Navale said residents would oppose any privatisation attempt and argued that the municipal corporation should instead provide an operating theatre, inpatient services and modern equipment. Resident Rahul Shinde told the newspaper that he returned after seeing a notice that rotavirus vaccine doses were unavailable. These accounts represent local concerns, while the medical officer’s statement indicates that the hospital continues to deliver several services. Both parts of the record need to be considered when assessing the facility.
The institutional choice is therefore not simply public ownership versus private management. It is also a question of what level of service the municipal corporation has decided to provide, how it will fund that service and who will be accountable for the equipment already purchased. If the hospital is expected to remain a primary public facility for a growing urban catchment, the corporation must define its clinical role, staffing pattern, referral arrangements and maintenance responsibilities. If private participation is proposed, the terms governing affordability, free services, access for urban poor scheme beneficiaries and public accountability become central.
The available figures show that demand already exists. More than 33,000 patients used the hospital in one year, while its daily outpatient load reaches 120 patients. The pandemic figures show that the institution was also capable of handling a much larger emergency function when resources and administrative attention were concentrated on it. What remains unclear from the supplied report is the condition of the two oxygen plants, the reasons the ventilators remain unused, the staffing required to operate them and the municipal corporation’s current cost or implementation plan.
That missing information is significant. Equipment can become unusable because of technical faults, expired maintenance agreements, a lack of trained operators, changes in clinical requirements or the absence of supporting infrastructure. A public decision on expansion or privatisation should therefore be based on an asset audit, staffing assessment and service-demand review rather than on the mere presence of idle machines. The report records the problem, but the municipal administration has not provided a detailed explanation in the supplied material.
Laigude Hospital’s situation raises a broader question for Pune’s expanding peripheral neighbourhoods: can municipal healthcare facilities keep pace with population growth when outpatient demand rises faster than hospital capacity? The answer depends not only on constructing new buildings, but on ensuring that existing facilities have functioning equipment, specialist staff, diagnostics, medicines, referral systems and routine maintenance.
The evidence currently confirms a heavily used public hospital delivering essential outpatient, maternity and immunisation services while operating with important capacity gaps. It also confirms that residents and local representatives are demanding a municipal-led upgrade rather than a move towards private management. The next decisive steps are the Pune Municipal Corporation’s response on the oxygen plants and ventilators, its plan for inpatient and surgical services, the availability of medicines and vaccines, and its formal position on the proposed use of the hospital’s upper floors.
