Treatment in India for
Solomon Islands Patients

What Solomon Islands can and cannot treat

The National Referral Hospital in Honiara is the country's tertiary centre, and it has been adding capability steadily. A CT scanner arrived in 2022. An oncology unit was established with Australian support, so chemotherapy can now be given at home.

What does not exist anywhere in the country is radiotherapy. There is no linear accelerator, no brachytherapy suite and no nuclear medicine service in Solomon Islands.

Cardiac surgery and organ transplantation are also not performed locally. For those, and for radiation, treatment means travelling.

Specialist services are concentrated at one hospital for the whole nation, which means patients from Western Province, Malaita and the outer islands travel to Honiara before any overseas decision even begins.

Cancer, and why radiotherapy matters here

Cancer is a growing burden in Solomon Islands, and the pattern is distinctive. Published research identifies the country as a hyperendemic area for oral and pharyngeal cancer, associated with widespread betel quid use.

Head and neck cancers are among the most radiotherapy-dependent of all cancers. For many patients, radiation is not an optional extra alongside surgery — it is a core part of curative treatment.

That creates a specific gap. A patient can be diagnosed at NRH, can begin chemotherapy at NRH, and still cannot receive the radiation their treatment plan calls for without leaving the country.

Indian cancer centres deliver the full range: external beam radiotherapy on linear accelerators, IMRT and IGRT, stereotactic techniques and brachytherapy, with radiation oncologists who treat head and neck disease routinely.

If the funded referral scheme cannot take you

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services operates overseas referral through a committee at the National Referral Hospital. Where it applies, it is the right route and it is free.

It is also under pressure. The ministry's long-standing partnership with a Sydney hospital lapsed in 2017, and referrals since have been arranged through professional networks and visiting specialists.

The ministry has itself described the central difficulty as limited funds against a rising number of people needing overseas services. Not everyone who needs referral receives one.

If you have been assessed and not accepted, or told the wait is longer than your diagnosis allows, self-funded treatment in India becomes worth understanding — not as a better option, but as an available one.

Why India rather than Australia or New Zealand

Cost, honestly. Self-funded private treatment in Australia is beyond almost every family in Solomon Islands, and there is no medical evacuation service based in the country, so even getting there privately is expensive.

A cardiac bypass at an accredited Indian hospital is quoted at around US$5,500. A full course of radiotherapy costs a fraction of the equivalent in Australia or New Zealand.

Capability is the second answer. India treats over 700,000 international patients a year, and its cancer centres run radiotherapy at volumes that produce genuine sub-specialist experience.

English is the working language of Indian hospital medicine, which removes a barrier that would otherwise matter.

Healthcare quality and accreditation

Accreditation is the one quality signal an international patient can verify independently. Joint Commission International accreditation involves external audit of clinical protocols, infection control, medication safety and patient rights.

Fewer than 1% of hospitals worldwide hold it. Apollo, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Medanta and Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital are among the Indian hospitals that do, alongside India's national NABH standard.

For radiotherapy specifically, ask what equipment the centre operates, how many patients with your cancer type it treats each year, and who will plan your treatment. GAF Healthcare will ask on your behalf.

India and Solomon Islands — an existing relationship

India and Solomon Islands have maintained diplomatic relations since 1987, and health cooperation is active rather than nominal.

In February 2025, India gifted a dialysis machine to the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, delivering on a commitment made at the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation summit.

India has also supplied vaccines and medicines to Solomon Islands, and FIPIC commitments cover sea ambulances for all fourteen Pacific island countries.

If you think your case might fall under a government arrangement, ask the Ministry of Health directly. That route is not something a facilitator can arrange, and it costs nothing to ask.

Getting there, and the visa

There are no direct flights. The route runs Honiara to Brisbane, Port Moresby or Nadi, then on to India through an Asian hub. Plan on 26 to 32 hours including connections.

Transit requirements should be checked before booking, since the routing crosses Australia or Papua New Guinea. Indian visa applications are made online at indianvisaonline.gov.in.

The High Commission of India in Port Moresby is accredited to Solomon Islands. Your application needs a hospital invitation letter and a cost estimate, both of which GAF Healthcare provides free.

Planning the stay and the journey home

Radiotherapy is the longest stay we arrange. A full course typically runs five to seven weeks of daily outpatient treatment, so accommodation, living costs and a companion's travel all need budgeting from the start.

Because the journey home is long, we plan the return conservatively rather than to the medical minimum, and build the extra days into the written estimate so they are not a surprise.

Before departure, your treating team prepares a full discharge package for your doctors at the National Referral Hospital, and we confirm which medications are available in Solomon Islands before you fly.

Callout — when not to travel

Some situations need treatment where you are. Severe chest pain, sudden weakness on one side, uncontrolled bleeding, difficulty breathing, or fever in a patient on chemotherapy are emergencies. Go to the nearest hospital first, then plan.