Bhutan
Bhutan’s own government has been paying for this trip for years. That changes what this page is for.
Most patients travelling from Bhutan to India for treatment are not searching for this decision. A government referral panel already made it, using public money, before the family ever opened a search engine. This page is written for the smaller group who is searching anyway, whether that is a family checking the state process or a Bhutanese patient making the call for themselves.
Nu 730 million (FY2024-25)
Bhutan’s government spent 730 million ngultrum on overseas medical treatment in the 2024-2025 financial year, under its state-funded referral programme
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), "Nu 730 M spent on overseas treatment, raising need for stronger healthcare within the country", 4 September 2026 Checked 2026-09-14.
Read directly from the BBS article itself, not a secondary summary, after an earlier, differently-sourced set of year-by-year figures for 2021-24 could not be verified anywhere and was left out entirely rather than repeated.
That is public money, spent by Bhutan’s own government, not a marketing estimate. The same government assessment records where those patients go and how the record-keeping itself holds up.
Over 1,250 patients referred (FY2024-25)
More than 1,250 patients were referred abroad for treatment during Bhutan’s 2024-2025 assessment period, under the government’s state-funded programme
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), 4 September 2026 Checked 2026-09-14.
This single-year figure replaces an earlier, differently-dated claim ("over 1,000 patients, July 2023 to April 2024") that traced to sources which could not be verified on direct checking and has been dropped rather than repeated.
We arrange an independent specialist opinion built around your specific diagnosis, for a fee paid by you, and we take nothing from any hospital. That is a different service from the government’s own referral programme, and this page says plainly where the two meet and where they do not.
Medically reviewed
Reviewed by Dr Gunjan Patel, MBBS, registered with the Gujarat Medical Council (G-65059). Last reviewed 14 September 2026. Reviewed for accuracy only. This page is general information, not advice about your own case, and Dr Gunjan Patel does not diagnose, prescribe or treat.
Where the state programme sends patients
Concentrated in one place, on a fixed panel, by design.
72.3% of referred patients
One Indian city receives 72.3 percent of all patients Bhutan refers abroad for treatment, per the government’s own referral assessment for the 2024-2025 financial year
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), 4 September 2026 Checked 2026-09-14.
The city is not named here, by this site’s own house rule against naming any Indian city. The same government assessment also reports that about 87 percent of referred patients returned home after completing treatment, and that 43.8 percent of all cases, 548 patients, had no recorded treatment outcome at all in the government’s own data, which we are stating plainly as a real limitation in the underlying record-keeping rather than leaving out.
Bhutan’s government empanels ten hospitals to treat Bhutanese patients referred from Bhutan, though its own source does not specify whether that count is nationwide or limited to one city. That is a real, government-run structure, not an informal pattern that grew on its own, and it is why a Bhutanese patient’s experience of this corridor looks different from most of the countries on this site: the hospital and the city are usually already decided by the time the patient travels.
A Royal Bhutanese Consulate in India, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bhutan, health services page Checked 2026-09-14.
No hospital is named on this site, by house rule. The consulate’s own page is ambiguous about whether "ten" refers to hospitals in one city specifically or nationally, and its own stated annual spend figure is clearly outdated next to the confirmed FY2024-25 total above, so that older spend figure is not repeated here. Separate, real reporting confirms Bhutan is in active talks to add further hospitals to this panel as of August 2026.
The programme is not the only route, and Bhutan’s own health minister has said so directly.
Bhutan’s Health Minister has stated on the record that some Bhutanese patients travel to Thailand for surgery, but that the government does not formally refer them there, because of the high cost involved
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), "Bhutan to expand complex surgeries with Thai medical expertise", 11 August 2026, quoting Health Minister Tandin Wangchuk Checked 2026-09-14.
Confirms the state-funded programme is India-focused in practice, while some individually-funded travel to Thailand exists outside it. Separately, Bhutan renewed a five-year cooperation agreement with Thailand specifically for kidney-disease and transplant capacity-building in August 2026, which may broaden this over time.
That is a real, on-record distinction worth knowing: a formal government referral is a different thing from a family paying its own way, and the two can lead to different countries entirely.
What the referrals are for
The list has changed recently, and one category is shrinking on purpose.
The largest category of Bhutan’s overseas medical referrals is cancer, followed by conditions affecting the blood vessels of the brain, blood-related disorders, and bone or joint problems, per the government’s own current referral assessment
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), 4 September 2026 Checked 2026-09-14.
This is the current, audited breakdown and differs from an earlier, less specific characterisation of the referral list; treat this version as the one to rely on since it traces to the most recent government assessment found.
Cardiac care is the clearest example of why this list is not fixed. Bhutan built its own capacity for it recently, and referrals abroad for it are shrinking as a direct result.
Bhutan’s own cardiac centre, opened in 2023, is reported to have cut the number of cardiac cases referred abroad and saved the government an estimated 50 million ngultrum as a direct result
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) reporting, January 2025 Checked 2026-09-14.
A real, reported figure from Bhutan’s own national broadcaster, not independently re-derived here from a primary budget document. It is consistent with the broader pattern this project already documents elsewhere: a referral corridor tracks a real capability gap and shrinks as that gap closes.
The pattern behind that is the same one this site describes for every country here: a referral corridor tracks a capability gap, and it changes as the gap changes, rather than tracking any single condition forever.
Nu 175 million to over Nu 700 million (a decade)
Bhutan’s government spending on referring patients abroad for treatment has grown by more than 300 percent over the past decade, from roughly 175 million ngultrum to more than 700 million
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), "Government reviews potential increase in DSA for patients referred abroad", 6 April 2026 Checked 2026-09-14.
A rounder, decade-scale figure from a different BBS article than the precise FY2024-25 total above; the two are consistent in direction and order of magnitude, not claimed to be the same measurement.
Who pays for the advice you get
A government panel decides where public referrals go. It does not decide who you trust.
If you are travelling through Bhutan’s own referral programme, the panel and the hospital are already set, and this page has nothing to add to that process. If you are one of the smaller number of Bhutanese patients arranging treatment independently, in India or asking whether Thailand or somewhere else makes more sense, the same commission question applies here as anywhere else.
Referral fees
can be paid to a medical travel facilitator by the hospital abroad, and a review of the research on facilitators, published in 2012, says patients may not know how much, or in what manner, a facilitator is paid
A review of earlier research, read as the authors’ manuscript. It says some facilitators are paid by their clients and others by facilities or physicians abroad, gives no proportion and no rate, and says there is little evidence on whether such payments influence recommendations. We found no readable source that gives a commission percentage, so we do not print one. The book is dated 2012 and the university repository record 2013. A consultant’s account of price padding shown elsewhere on the site is hers, attributed to her, and not a rate we have verified. Commission is one model in this market, not the only one, and we never say every company works this way.
We are paid by you, once, and we take nothing from any hospital afterwards. This is exactly how that works.
Questions
What Bhutanese patients and families ask us.
Can you get me into the government referral programme?
No, and we want to be direct about that. The referral panel is a Bhutanese government process, run by Bhutan’s own Ministry of Health, and we have no role in it and no way to influence it. What we do is separate: an independent second opinion for a patient who is deciding for themselves, whether that is because they are not part of the state programme, are weighing it against a private option, or simply want a view nobody else is paid to give them.
Do I need a visa to travel from Bhutan to India for treatment?
No. Bhutanese citizens do not need a visa to enter India, under the long-standing treaty relationship between the two countries. A valid passport or Bhutanese citizenship identity card is what you need, not a medical visa application.
If the government already pays for this, why would I need independent advice?
Because the government programme answers a different question than the one an independent opinion answers. The panel decides whether a case qualifies for state-funded referral and which empanelled hospital receives it. It does not second-guess a specific treatment plan once a patient arrives, and it was never built to. If you want a second, independent read on your own diagnosis, that is a different service, and it is the one we provide.
Is cardiac surgery still a common reason Bhutanese patients travel to India?
Less than it used to be, and we would rather tell you that than repeat an outdated claim. Bhutan built its own cardiac centre recently and is now actively reducing how many cardiac cases it refers abroad. Cancer, conditions affecting the brain’s blood vessels, blood disorders, and bone or joint problems make up more of the current referral list than cardiac care does. More on cardiac surgery in India.
Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), 4 September 2026 Checked 2026-09-14.
This is the current, audited breakdown and differs from an earlier, less specific characterisation of the referral list; treat this version as the one to rely on since it traces to the most recent government assessment found.
What happens after I get home?
The same handover gap exists for a Bhutanese patient as for anyone else who travels for treatment: a discharge summary in one country is not automatically read or acted on by a doctor in another. This is why our involvement runs for ninety days after you return rather than ending at the airport. How the ninety days work.
Already have a government referral? This page may not be for you, and we'll say so.
If a government panel has already placed you with a hospital, we will tell you honestly whether there is anything useful we can add. If you are deciding independently instead, thirty minutes with us is free.