a hospital · IndiaApollo Hospitals, Greams Road, Chennai

The first hospital of the Apollo group, opened at Greams Road in Chennai in 1983 and still its flagship. It runs over sixty departments, states 1,500-plus outpatient visits a day and 500-plus international patient consultations a month, and sits within a few hundred metres of the group's children's hospital, women's hospital and heart centre.

Apollo Hospitals was founded by Prathap C. Reddy in 1983 as the first corporate hospital company in India, and the first branch — this one — was opened by the President of India, Zail Singh. The date matters for the subject: an Indian private hospital company existed before India had a private hospital industry, and the cross-border patient trade that grew around Chennai grew around it.

Several of the group's hospitals were among the first in India to take Joint Commission International accreditation, and the group also holds accreditation from NABH, the Indian national board. Inference — Apollo's early move on JCI is the same move Bumrungrad made in Bangkok two decades ago and for the same reason: an accreditation is a name a foreign insurer already recognises, attached to a hospital it does not.

The Chennai cluster around Greams Road is denser than a single hospital. The group lists twelve facilities in the city, including a proton therapy centre at Tharamani — one of a small number in Asia, and the reason a particular kind of cancer patient flies to Chennai rather than Bangkok.

An international patient reaches a separate lifeline number, quoted on every page, and a consultation is arranged before travel. Trade practice — Indian corporate hospitals quote a foreign patient an estimate by email rather than publishing a price, and the estimate is a band with the implant, the ICU nights and the length of stay named as variables. Nothing on this hospital's own pages, read on 16 September 2026, carried a rupee figure for an operation.

As of 16 September 2026 the hospital's own page states it was established in 1983, runs over sixty departments, and records 1,500-plus daily outpatient visits and 500-plus international patient consultations a month. It publishes no price. Its bed count is rendered by script on that page and did not resolve for this project, so this record carries none.