a country · NepalNepal

A source market with one dominant destination and a published reason for going that is not the one the field assumes. A survey of 382 Nepali patients who had been treated abroad found 88.80 per cent went to India, and ranked the way they were treated at home above cost as the thing that moved them.

Biswakarma and Basnet surveyed 382 Nepali respondents who had undergone treatment overseas and published the result in the International Hospitality Review in 2025. India took 88.80 per cent of them; Thailand 5.73 per cent; Singapore 4.95 per cent; the United States and United Kingdom together 0.52 per cent.

What they went for was serious. Cancer treatment accounted for 39.32 per cent of cases, organ transplants 13.54 per cent and cardiovascular surgery 10.68 per cent. This is not a trade in elective cosmetic work.

The motivations are the finding. "Healthcare provider attitude and poor service" ranked highest at 22.4 per cent, ahead of the availability of advanced medical technology at 20.6 per cent, and the authors report that service quality had a large effect while price alone did not carry the decision.

Inference — that inverts the standard account of this subject, which starts from the price gap and reasons forward. In the poorest country in this batch, the travelling patient's stated complaint is how they were spoken to. A survey of 382 people is not a census, and the sample is of people who already travelled — but it is a published figure with a method attached, which is more than most national totals in this directory have.

Trade practice — the route runs overland as often as by air. An open border, shared language across the Terai, and Indian hospitals with Nepali-speaking coordinators make Delhi, Lucknow, Chennai and Vellore ordinary destinations rather than foreign ones.

Trade practice — Nepali patients pay out of pocket, frequently on borrowed money or on remittances from a family member working abroad. No entry visa is needed for India. Referral travels by word of mouth and by the consultant who saw the patient in Kathmandu; the follow-up, when there is one, happens at home with a discharge summary and no operating surgeon.

No Nepali government series counting patients who leave for treatment was read for this record, and none is carried. The 2025 survey is what this page stands on.