The Malti Kachi Maternity Hospital, situated at Gadikhana, near Mahatma Phule Mandai, Shukrawar Peth, Pune, has come under the spotlight as the four-floor building, which was once dedicated as a maternity hospital, has become a medicine storehouse.
The maternity hospital has remained closed since the COVID-19 lockdown and is now being used as a warehouse for storing medicines instead of functioning as a medical facility.
In January 2025, the former Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Rajendra Bhosale had publicly announced the establishment of a new heart diagnostic centre within the same premises. However, no progress has been made on this front.
Currently, the building's first floor is used as the Outside Patient Department (OPD), the second floor is allocated to a senior citizens’ forum, the third floor is now used as a medicine store, and the fourth floor is reserved for the staff working there. Earlier, the second floor was entirely dedicated to the maternity ward.
A social activist, Rupesh Kesekar, speaking to The Free Press Journal, said, "The maternity hospital should be reopened and all medical services under the urban health mission should be reinstated and fully operational. The hospital is located in a prime location in the centre of the city. This Gadikhana area falls in Kasba Vishrambaug Ward and Bhawani Peth wards. So this hospital will help people from both areas to access the medical facility. Despite consistent follow-ups since 2023 to fully utilise the hospital’s infrastructure, officials have repeatedly cited a shortage of manpower as the reason for inaction."
Kavita Gayakwad, a local resident, added, "The hospital should be fully utilised for the maternity ward. There is ample space, so the building can be used for providing medical treatment rather than using it as a storehouse. Kamla Nehru Hospital is the nearest hospital, but it is located on the outskirts. This location is perfect, and it will save our time and is easily accessible."
Meanwhile, a senior official of PMC told this newspaper, "We had shut the Malti Kachi Maternity Hospital during COVID-19 as a very small number of patients were coming, and we decentralised the staff to other maternity hospitals where the flow of patients was high. We have another maternity hospital, Savitribai Phule Parsuti Grah, in Guruwar Peth, which is hardly at a distance of five minutes, and that maternity hospital has a lot of patients and people living in that area come to that hospital. In future, if we feel the need to reopen the facility, we will open it, but currently, we have a manpower crunch."
