Pune-Mumbai Expressway Trauma Centre Addressing Gaps for Effective Emergency Care
Located at Ozarde along the Pune-Mumbai Expressway, the Trauma Care Centre, operational since 2019, was built to serve as a vital lifeline for accident victims on one of Maharashtra’s busiest highways. Established with initial promise, the centre boasts key facilities, including two helipads, an operating room, and recovery rooms. However, nearly six years after its inception, experts and police officials argue that the centre still faces significant operational shortcomings, which prevent it from fully meeting its crucial mandate of providing timely care to accident victims, particularly within the ‘golden hour’ after an incident.
The Trauma Care Centre was conceived in response to a series of fatal accidents on the expressway in 2012, prompting the Maharashtra government to develop a network of centres to offer emergency care. The building was completed by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) in late 2014, but staffing delays, including unsuccessful tender processes, led to its opening only in 2019 under the management of Pawana Medical Foundation. While basic medical support is in place, such as ambulances and basic stabilisation facilities, areas requiring immediate attention include inadequate diagnostic equipment, a lack of specialised medical staff, and insufficient operational streamlining during emergencies.
One of the most pressing concerns voiced by medical experts and law enforcement is the centre’s current lack of advanced diagnostic tools such as X-ray units, which are essential for assessing injuries quickly and effectively. Additionally, there is a notable gap in staffing. While the centre does have medical staff on-call around the clock, it often operates with minimal personnel, leaving it vulnerable in case of multiple emergencies. Furthermore, despite the presence of two helipads, the absence of an operational air ambulance system, as originally promised, has left these facilities largely unused, limiting the centre’s capacity to rapidly transfer critical patients to hospitals with more comprehensive care capabilities.
A major area of concern, as pointed out by Tanmay Pendse, an independent researcher and advocate for highway safety, is the inefficiency in handling critical emergencies. Pendse, who tragically lost his brother and nephew in a 2012 accident on the expressway, emphasises that while the centre offers basic services, it could certainly provide more comprehensive care with improved equipment, staff, and more streamlined emergency procedures. The centre’s inability to fully implement an efficient transfer system for critical patients, especially when they need to be moved quickly to tertiary care facilities, is an issue that needs urgent resolution.
In the context of sustainability and the broader civic angle, the Trauma Care Centre’s challenges also raise important questions about the state’s commitment to public health infrastructure along busy highways. While building such facilities is a step towards enhancing emergency care, their effectiveness depends largely on continuous upgrades, proper staffing, and ensuring that the promises made at the time of construction are fulfilled. For long-term sustainability, there needs to be a focus on building not just the physical infrastructure, but also the operational capacity, ensuring that every facility along the highway can perform at its full potential in saving lives.
