How was the 2026 hospital group ranking calculated?
The survey was conducted between May and September 2026. Its methodology combined desk research, more than 1,500 interviews with doctors and medical specialists, more than 2,000 interviews with patients and caregivers, and fact sheets sent to more than 1,950 hospitals and clinics. The assessment combined expert and patient perceptions with factual information on clinical quality, infrastructure, human resources, accreditation, patient safety, and academic and research capability.
Only private hospital groups with at least five operational branches were eligible. Government, partly government-funded, charitable and not-for-profit hospitals were excluded. The results reflect each eligible group as a single entity and should not be read as rankings of individual campuses. The survey also allows the same rank where the statistical gap between two entities is very small, as in the joint third place.
Who made the top three in the 2026 hospital group ranking?
Figures in this section are as published by the groups on their own websites in October 2026.
Apollo Hospitals, which secured the first position, says it opened India’s first corporate hospital in 1983 and has since built a broad healthcare ecosystem spanning hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostics and primary-care clinics. The group reports more than 10,000 beds and a pharmacy network of over 4,000 outlets. Its scale reflects how organised private healthcare has moved from individual institutions to interconnected networks.
Fortis Healthcare, ranked second, reports 36 healthcare facilities across 12 states, with more than 6,000 operational beds, spanning hospitals, diagnostics and day-care specialty facilities. Its stated mission centres on clinical excellence and patient care.
Manipal Hospitals, which shares third place, traces its roots to the founding of Kasturba Medical College in 1953, with its first hospital opening in Bengaluru in 1991. The group reports 49 hospitals in more than 24 cities and over 12,600 beds, and says its network is expanding across metro and tier-II cities.
Paras Health’s joint third place brings a different dimension to the ranking: the development of advanced multispeciality care in markets where specialised treatment has often been harder to find close to home.
Which North India hospital group made the top three?
While much of India’s organised private healthcare infrastructure has historically been concentrated in the major metros, Paras Health has built a network across northern and eastern India, largely in cities beyond the largest metropolitan centres. Its eight hospitals are in Gurugram and Panchkula in Haryana, Patna and Darbhanga in Bihar, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Udaipur in Rajasthan, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir, a presence in five states and one Union Territory.
According to its website, Paras Health describes itself as having 20 years in healthcare, has treated more than 2.1 million patients across multiple states, and has a team of more than 2,100 doctors and nurses. Its clinical services include cardiac sciences, oncology, neurosciences, gastro sciences, orthopaedics, renal sciences, and liver transplant and GI surgery, among other specialties. The group’s Srinagar hospital marked three years in May 2026.
Why hospital groups outside the metros matter
Building a multispeciality hospital outside an established metropolitan hub takes more than physical infrastructure. Hospitals must attract and retain experienced clinicians, establish multidisciplinary teams, invest in specialised equipment, maintain quality and patient-safety systems, and develop the operational capability to support complex treatments.
These requirements can be harder to meet in Tier-II and Tier-III markets, where specialised clinical talent, supporting medical infrastructure and referral networks may differ from those in larger cities, and where providers must balance affordability against the cost of advanced services. For patients, having such services locally can reduce the need to travel to metropolitan centres for consultations, diagnostics and treatment.
Paras Health’s presence in Patna, Darbhanga, Ranchi, Kanpur, Udaipur and Srinagar illustrates an emphasis on building this capacity outside the largest markets. Manipal’s presence across metro and tier-II markets shows how established national networks are also broadening their reach. The two approaches differ in scale and geography, but both point to the growing importance of extending organised healthcare beyond traditional urban centres.
The challenge is not simply to open hospitals in more cities, but to sustain clinical capability, patient experience and quality systems across an entire network. The Times Now survey assesses groups against that institutional perspective. However, the published ranking does not provide criterion-wise scores showing that any single strategy or factor determined a group’s position. Paras Health’s joint third place should therefore be read as a national group-level outcome, with its expansion model an illustration of the wider shift towards advanced care in non-metropolitan India.
What the ranking signifies
The first release of the Times Now Hospital Survey 2026 places Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Manipal Hospitals and Paras Health within the national conversation on organised multispeciality healthcare. Their positions bring different network models into focus, from the scale of established national chains to the development of advanced care in markets beyond the largest cities. As hospital networks continue to expand, the ability to sustain clinical capability across locations will remain an important consideration for patients, healthcare professionals and the wider industry.
The survey’s campus-level, specialty, zonal and city-level results, being released in stages, are expected to add further perspective on individual hospitals and healthcare markets.
About the survey: The Times Now Hospital Survey 2026 was conducted by Times Now in association with Research & Insights. It assesses eligible private hospitals and hospital groups through desk research, medical-expert interviews, patient and caregiver interviews, and factual hospital data. Results are being released in stages across national group, hospital, specialty, zonal and city categories.
A note on the figures: Network figures for Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Manipal Hospitals and Paras Health are as published on each group’s website in October 2026 and may change. Survey details are from the Times Now Hospital Survey 2026 methodology.
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