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. Evacuation is never the first step in an emergency; stabilising the patient where they are is. Make that call first, then contact this desk.
Getting someone home from Bali under medical supervision is one of the few parts of a case where the family has real decisions to make and almost no information to make them with. Four parties are involved at once — the treating hospital, the insurer, an aviation operator and a receiving hospital — and each waits for the others. This page explains how the pieces fit and who decides what.
Evacuation, repatriation, and escort
Three different things, often confused
Evacuation moves a patient to the nearest facility that can treat the problem, which from Bali often means a regional centre. Repatriation brings the patient home to their own country, usually once they are stable. An escort is a clinician travelling with a patient on an otherwise ordinary flight, and it is a feature of both.
The distinction matters because insurers treat and price them differently, and a policy can authorise one and not the other. Read which word your own wording uses, and put the question to your insurer in writing rather than assuming one implies the other.
Who decides you can fly
The treating clinician, and the airline’s own rules
Two parties decide, and neither of them is us. The treating clinician judges whether a patient can be moved and what escort or equipment is required. Your insurer decides what it will authorise and pay for. Our role is to make sure both are working from the same documents at the same time, which is more often the bottleneck than any clinical question.
A third constraint sits behind them: the carrier. Airlines have their own medical clearance procedures, and a fitness-to-fly clearance is issued by a clinician, not by a concierge desk, a travel agent or a family. Where a stretcher or oxygen is involved, the airline’s medical department has to agree before a seat is held.
The three ways home
Escorted commercial seat
A patient who is stable and mobile enough travels in a normal seat, with a doctor or nurse accompanying them. This is the least complicated and most widely available option, and it still needs the airline’s clearance and the treating clinician’s sign-off.
Stretcher on a commercial aircraft
A stretcher installation occupies a block of seats and has to be arranged with the airline in advance. It is not available on every route or aircraft, and availability is set by the carrier’s own rules and schedule rather than by urgency.
Air ambulance
A dedicated aircraft with a medical crew and equipment, used where a patient cannot travel on a scheduled service. Configurations differ: some are equipped for ventilated or spinal patients and some are not, so the answer belongs to the operator and the aircraft on the day. We obtain that confirmation in writing before anything is booked.
What it costs, and who pays
Why we publish no figure
We do not publish evacuation prices. We have no sourced figure we could stand behind, and the cost swings on aircraft type, crew, stretcher or seat, destination and how urgently it is arranged. What we do is get written quotations and put them in front of your insurer with the medical file.
We also do not quote timings. Flight time is a small part of it; authorisation, a receiving bed, crew availability, ground transport at both ends and airport slots usually decide when a patient actually moves. Anyone promising a fixed window has not checked those.
Where the insurer’s cover ends
If a policy covers evacuation and the insurer authorises it, the insurer normally settles with the operator directly. Without that authorisation, operators generally expect payment or a guarantee before departure. Get the insurer’s position in writing early. Note too that a family member’s flight home, accommodation and the ground transport at either end are often outside the evacuation cover even when the flight itself is inside it. The insurer side is set out in travel insurance and guarantee of payment.
Documents, and a receiving hospital at the other end
What an operator and a receiving facility ask for
An operator needs a current medical report from the treating clinician, the imaging and results, a statement of what escort and equipment are required, and the insurer’s authorisation or a payment guarantee. Passports and visa position matter too, for the patient and anyone travelling with them.
The receiving hospital is the part families most often leave until last, and the one that stops a departure. A bed has to be accepted before take-off, not found after landing. Where a patient’s own doctor or insurer has named the receiving hospital, we handle the contact and send the file.
The ground legs are their own piece of work: hospital to airport in Bali, airport to hospital at the other end, and any inter-island movement before that. How those are arranged is in how medical transport is arranged. For cases starting offshore, see diving emergencies in Bali and the surrounding islands.
What we coordinate, and what we are not
What we coordinate: notifying your insurer early and in writing; assembling the medical report, imaging and results as one complete file; obtaining written quotations from licensed operators; putting your preferred destination into the conversation in writing; contacting the receiving facility your clinician or insurer has named; tracking each step so the family knows where it stands; and arranging the family’s own flights and transport around the move.
What we are not: we do not operate aircraft, ambulances or medical crews, and we do not fly patients. We do not decide fitness to fly and we do not authorise or approve anything — clinicians and insurers do. We publish no prices and we promise no timings. We name no operator as a recommendation, and we are not affiliated with any of them. Nobody on this desk is medical staff.
Related: admission and discharge paperwork, how a second opinion or referral out of Bali works, and how the coordination desk works.
Questions people ask
What is medical evacuation?
Medical evacuation is the supervised movement of a patient from where they are treated to a facility that can provide the care they need, with the escort and equipment their condition requires. It is arranged by licensed operators and authorised by clinicians and insurers. We coordinate it; we do not fly it.
What is the difference between medical evacuation and medical repatriation?
Evacuation moves a patient to the nearest facility that can treat the problem, which from Bali often means a regional centre. Repatriation brings the patient home to their own country, usually once they are stable. Insurers treat the two differently, so check which one your policy actually authorises.
Who arranges medical evacuation from Indonesia?
Licensed evacuation operators fly it, and your insurer’s assistance company usually appoints one. Hospitals may also have their own arrangements. We are not an operator and we do not fly patients. We coordinate between all of them so the family is not chasing four parties at once.
How much does medical evacuation from Bali cost?
We do not publish evacuation prices. We have no sourced figure we could stand behind, and the cost swings on aircraft type, crew, stretcher or seat, destination and how urgently it is arranged. What we do is get written quotations and put them in front of your insurer with the medical file.
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.