Telangana: Air Ambulance Traffic To Hyderabad Boosts Medical Tourism
The availability of specialised doctors, tertiary and quaternary care and advanced infrastructure is drawing patients to Hyderabad: Reports
HYDERABAD: A major boost to medical tourism in Telangana is the increasing number of critically ill patients being airlifted to Hyderabad for treatment, with cases ranging from seasonal influenza and respiratory illnesses to paediatric, neonatal, transplant and ECMO cases. Families are spending more than ₹10 lakh on airlifting alone, with treatment costs adding to the expense.
The availability of specialised doctors, tertiary and quaternary care and advanced infrastructure is drawing patients to Hyderabad.
Recently, a private hospital airlifted an eight‑year‑old boy from Guwahati on ECMO support after severe Influenza B pneumonia left him critically ill. The hospital’s ECMO retrieval team travelled more than 3,600 km, initiated VV ECMO at the referring hospital and transported the child nearly 1,800 km to Hyderabad.
Dr Dinesh Kumar Chirala, director, intensive care services at a private hospital, said Hyderabad had emerged as a major centre for treating critically ill paediatric and neonatal patients. “It is the availability of specialised doctors and the infrastructure that Hyderabad has built that is attracting these cases. We are seeing patients being brought from Goa, Raipur, Guwahati and Chhattisgarh,” he said. His hospital also sends specialised doctors along with air ambulances when required.
Another doctor cited the case of a patient with respiratory complications following influenza who was airlifted from a northeastern state and treated in Hyderabad.
According to airlifting expert Rahul Singh, who operates an air ambulance company in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, the Maldives and Abu Dhabi, air ambulance traffic to Hyderabad has increased since Covid‑19, particularly for paediatric, neonatal, transplant and ECMO cases. Corporate hospitals including Yashoda, Apollo, Rainbow and KIMS are among those using air ambulance services.
The availability of Begumpet airport for air ambulance operations and its accessibility to major hospitals have also helped. The cost of airlifting from Raipur and Bhubaneswar is around ₹6–7 lakh, while it can exceed ₹10 lakh from Lucknow and northeastern states.
Patients from abroad are also being transported to India for specialised treatment, with Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru emerging as major destinations. From the US, around one or two patients a week are transported to one of these three cities.
Air ambulance services are generally arranged either through hospitals or patient attendants. An ambulance equipped with paramedical personnel and required medical equipment transports the patient, following which the destination hospital takes over the transfer.
Experts said Telangana could consider a subsidised air ambulance service for poor patients. Madhya Pradesh had run a pilot in which 100 hours of air ambulance services a month were provided free for poor patients between 2024 and 2025, with the service also available for transfers between government hospitals. Maharashtra is considering a similar model. Telangana is yet to explore such a system, they said, suggesting discussions with the state government to make emergency air transport accessible to poor patients.