If this is life-threatening, call 112 (national emergency) or 119 (medical emergency / ambulance) first. 112 is the national emergency number in Indonesia; 119 is the public health emergency line (PSC 119) for ambulance and medical dispatch. Make that call before you contact us. Once help is moving, message the desk and we take over the coordination around it.
Four transfers we coordinate
Most of the moving that happens around an illness in Bali is not a siren job. It is planned, it involves paperwork at both ends, and it goes wrong for boring reasons: nobody told the receiving ward, the records were not ready, the billing was unresolved, the vehicle was the wrong size for the lane.
Hospital to hospital
Usually because a case needs something the first hospital does not have — a specialist, an intensive care bed, imaging, or a procedure. The decision is clinical and belongs to the treating team. Ours is the part around it: confirming the receiving unit has accepted the patient, that records travel with them, and that the family knows where to go.
Airport to hospital
Someone arrives in Bali already unwell, or flies in to be with a patient. We meet the flight, arrange the vehicle, and telephone the hospital so the arrival is expected rather than explained at the counter.
Discharge to a villa or hotel
Discharge day is more complicated than people expect: the bill, the discharge summary, medication to collect, and a room that may need to be reachable without stairs. We handle the logistics; the discharge plan itself comes from the treating team.
Hospital to the airport for a flight home
Timing here is unforgiving, because the airline and the insurer both have requirements. Anything involving a medical escort or a stretcher belongs on our page about medical evacuation and repatriation from Bali.
Car, ambulance, or stretcher — and who decides
Three questions decide the vehicle, and we answer none of them. Can the patient sit up and travel without monitoring? Does anything need to be carried and administered on the way? Is a stretcher required? Those are clinical judgements made by the treating clinician. Once that judgement exists, the logistics are ours: the right vehicle, the route, the timing, and someone at both ends who knows the patient is coming.
We will not give you a journey time in minutes. There is no verifiable source for travel times between areas of Bali, and any figure we invented would be wrong on the day you needed it.
What has to be ready before a transfer
Records, the receiving unit’s agreement, billing
A transfer is ready when four things are true. The receiving unit has agreed to take the patient — not “probably has space”, but has agreed. The clinical records, imaging and current medication list are prepared to travel. The account at the sending facility is settled or an arrangement is documented. And the insurer knows what is happening, because a transfer that surprises the insurer is a transfer that gets argued about later. We drive all four in parallel and tell you plainly which one is holding things up.
The VIP car option
For patients who can travel sitting up, a private car with a driver and a coordinator is often the better answer: door to door, no waiting for dispatch, room for a family member, and someone in the vehicle who can telephone ahead in Indonesian.
It is worth stating what that is not. A VIP car is not an ambulance. It carries no medical equipment, no oxygen and no crew. It is transport with a coordinator in it. If a case needs anything more than that, it needs a medical vehicle, and the route is 119 or 112 or a hospital’s own ambulance — see ambulance coordination in Sanur and Denpasar.
Where our job ends
We do not own or operate medical vehicles, boats or aircraft, and we do not crew them. We do not supply the clinical escort: if a nurse or doctor travels with the patient, that person is licensed staff arranged through a licensed provider, working to their own judgement. And we do not decide whether a patient is fit to move. Our role is to make sure the clinician, the insurer and both facilities are working from the same set of documents, and that the vehicle turns up where it should.
What we do, and what we do not do
What we do: arrange the vehicle and the timing; confirm the receiving unit has accepted the patient; make sure records and medication lists are ready to travel; telephone both ends in Indonesian; accompany the journey; handle admission paperwork at the receiving facility; keep the insurer informed.
What we do not do: we own and operate no medical vehicles; we employ no nurses, doctors or paramedics; we supply no clinical escort; we give no treatment during a journey; we do not decide fitness to travel; and we quote no journey times.
Questions people ask about transfers
Can a medical concierge arrange transport from the airport to a hospital?
We arrange ground transport, including a VIP car from the airport, and we coordinate medical transport between islands with licensed operators. We do not own vehicles, boats or aircraft and we do not crew them. Anything with a medical escort needs the treating clinician’s sign-off before it is booked.
Can a medical concierge help after discharge from a Bali hospital?
Yes for the non-clinical side: recovery accommodation, transport, appointments, documents for your insurer and travel arrangements home. Nursing care is clinical, so we book it with licensed providers rather than supplying it ourselves. We do not employ nurses, and the discharge plan comes from the treating team.
Does the treating doctor decide on medical evacuation?
Two parties decide, and neither is us. The treating clinician judges whether the patient is fit to move and what escort is required; your insurer decides what it will authorise and pay for. Our role is to make sure both are talking to each other with the same documents in front of them.
Can a medical concierge help with hospital billing in Bali?
We prepare and submit the paperwork, ask for an itemised bill, and liaise with your insurer so the same file reaches everyone. We cannot approve a claim, authorise treatment or issue a guarantee of payment, and we do not arrange direct billing ourselves. The insurer and the facility settle that between them.
Related: hospital admission and discharge help, second opinion and referral out of Bali, Bali hospital and emergency room directory.
Capabilities and opening hours change. We confirm by phone at the time of your case.
To reach the desk: WhatsApp +62 811-2859-0000, or email sales@balipremiumtrip.com. Sanur Emergency is a non-clinical medical coordination desk in Bali, Indonesia. We hold no ownership or management interest in any hospital, clinic or ambulance service.
Sanur Emergency is an independent medical concierge. We are not a clinic, hospital or ambulance operator, we do not employ medical staff, and we are not affiliated with any medical facility. All clinical care is delivered by licensed providers.