Hospitals in Indonesia

Indonesia is seventeen thousand islands and its hospitals are not spread evenly across them. Jakarta has the country’s best, Bali has a cluster of private hospitals built specifically around foreign visitors, and the big Javanese cities are well covered. Beyond that, on the islands a great many travellers come for, the realistic provision is a public district hospital and a clinic — enough to stabilise a patient, not enough to treat a serious one.

The other thing to know is where the serious cases go: Singapore, two and a half hours from Denpasar and under two from Jakarta, is the region’s referral centre and the destination on most medical-evacuation policies written for this country. This page explains how the system works and what to arrange in advance; the city pages list the hospitals with addresses, phone numbers and maps.

Cities

All 6 hospitals in Indonesia

Bed counts are approximate. Tap a name for the full page, or a city for that city’s guide.

Public, private or international?

Public hospitals, the state and regional ones, are cheap and carry the serious specialists in the big cities, but they are crowded and run in Indonesian. Private hospital groups — the large chains in Jakarta and the Javanese cities — are faster, cleaner and mostly English-capable at the front desk. In Bali a third category exists: private hospitals and clinics built around foreign patients, which speak English throughout, deal with travel insurers daily and organise evacuations. With insurance, use those. Without it, a public hospital will still treat you, far more cheaply.

Deposits, bills and insurance

Expect to be asked for a deposit on admission and for the bill before discharge. Several private hospitals in Bali and Jakarta bill major travel insurers directly, but only with a guarantee arranged in advance through the insurer’s assistance line, so phone that number early. Everywhere else is pay-and-claim, and a serious admission can require a substantial payment up front. Keep every receipt and ask for an English-language medical report before you leave: no insurer will settle without one.

Evacuation, and what it really costs

Medical evacuation is not an abstraction here. A traveller hurt on Lombok, in the Gili Islands, at Komodo or on a liveaboard is stabilised locally and then moved — by boat, then by air, usually to Denpasar first and to Singapore if the case needs more. Air ambulance runs into tens of thousands of dollars and is precisely what evacuation cover is for; without it the bill lands on the patient or the family. Check that your policy covers evacuation, not just treatment, before you fly.

Diving, dengue and the pharmacy

Divers should ask their operator, before getting in the water, which recompression chamber it uses and how long the journey takes — the answer varies a great deal between Bali, the Gilis and the eastern islands. Dengue is present nationwide and any fever lasting more than two days needs a blood test rather than a pharmacy. Pharmacies (apotek) are common in the cities and in Bali, thinner on smaller islands, and prescription rules are stricter than in Thailand, so carry your own regular medication.

Indonesia travel guide / Indonesia visa guide / Indonesia tourist maps / All hospitals

Travel information, not medical advice.

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