How long is the wait for a public specialist clinic? Recommendations, the 56 figures across 8 specialties and 7 clusters, and the column with no target at all, 2026

TL;DR The Hospital Authority sets standing waiting-time targets only for urgent and semi-urgent new cases. The longest wait of all — stable new cases, a median of 10 to 70 weeks and a 90th percentile of 16 to 114 weeks — has no standing "within so many weeks" promise attached to it. And the "longest" in the table is not the longest: it is the 90th percentile, and how long the remaining 10% wait is not published.

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#Only two categories have a standing target, and the longest wait is not one of them

This is the most useful sentence in the article. The standing waiting-time targets the Hospital Authority publishes cover only urgent new cases (a median within 2 weeks) and semi-urgent new cases (within 8 weeks); stable new cases — the two columns running from a median of 10 to 70 weeks and a 90th percentile of 16 to 114 weeks — have no standing target, applying across all specialties and clusters, of "within so many weeks" ever published [Note 1].

That is not an inference but the structure of the Authority's own document: the last sentence of its triage description lists two targets only, identically in the Chinese and the English, and neither language mentions stable new cases.

⚠️ Keep "standing target" and "time-limited reduction target" apart; they are not the same thing. The Government has separately set performance-agreement targets for reducing the 90th-percentile waiting time for stable new cases in particular specialties in particular years — Medicine by 20% in 2023-24 (from 122 weeks to 92), and Ear, Nose and Throat and Orthopaedics by 10% each in 2024-25 (from 93 and 91 weeks to 79 and 73) [Note 2].

Those reduction targets are a different kind of thing from the "within so many weeks" of the urgent and semi-urgent categories: they are time-limited percentage targets covering some specialties in some years, not a continuing waiting-time commitment across every specialty and cluster.

And the two standing targets themselves carry two qualifications each, so neither is a guarantee.

First, the target is set at the median. Half of urgent new cases within 2 weeks and half beyond 2 weeks counts as meeting it just the same; and the Authority has never published a 90th percentile for the urgent or semi-urgent categories, so how long the slower half waits is a question the published data cannot answer.

Second, the phrase the Authority uses for the same thing is "arrange as far as possible" [Note 3]. And at question 6 of the FAQ, the Chinese version puts it as most urgent and semi-urgent cases being able to be seen within 2 weeks and 8 weeks respectively, while the corresponding English sentence is a statement about effort. The Chinese version is a statement about most cases and the English version a statement about effort; neither is a promise to an individual patient.

Set the targets beside the figures published this period (8 specialties × 7 clusters = 56 cells):

The 5 cells over a year are: ENT Kowloon East 54, Gynaecology New Territories East 58, Medicine Kowloon Central 65, Psychiatry New Territories East 69, Ophthalmology New Territories East 70. The 3 cells at or beyond about two years are: Ophthalmology Kowloon East 100, Psychiatry New Territories East 104, Ophthalmology New Territories East 114.

That contrast is the shape of the whole system: in the two columns with a target, all 56 cells meet it; in the column without one, the widest cell across specialties is seven times the narrowest (Paediatrics Kowloon East 10 weeks against Ophthalmology New Territories East 70 weeks).

And a patient's actual fate falls, for the most part, in the column with no target — the proportion triaged to "stable" runs from 50% (Ophthalmology) to 79% (Psychiatry) across the eight specialties, so in every specialty at least half of all new cases land in the column with no target.

⚠️ Once the referral letter is in your hand, the first thing to ask is not "how long will I wait" but "which category have I been put in". Urgent and semi-urgent have an official target and stable does not — and that distinction matters far more than which hospital you pick.

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#The median is not your waiting time, and the "longest" is not the longest

Without the difference between a median and a 90th percentile, the tables below can only be misread.

Four easily confused pairs, first:

• Median ≠ mean. The median is the waiting time of the person standing in the middle of the queue.
• Median ≠ the time you will wait. A median of 60 weeks means half of people wait less than 60 weeks and the other half wait more than 60 weeks. Which half you land in is something the median says nothing about at all.
• The 90th percentile ≠ the worst case. The Authority calls this column "longest" in its table, but its own footnote states that the longest (90th percentile) waiting time means 90% of new case bookings can be seen earlier than the waiting time shown [Note 4]. That is, 90% of new case bookings are seen sooner than that time and 10% later. It is the 90th rung, not the 100th; how long that remaining 10% waits, the Authority does not publish.
• Triage category ≠ severity of illness. The Authority's own wording is that triage is to ensure that patients whose conditions are urgent and require early treatment receive priority follow-up — what is being measured is whether early intervention is needed. "Stable" does not mean "nothing is wrong" or "it does not matter"; it means a specialist has reviewed the referral and judged that early intervention is not required.

One last point, about the direction of time. These figures are backward-looking statistics for new cases already given an appointment over the past 12 months, not the Authority's prediction or promise for a referral letter written today.

The Authority puts it more plainly in its cataract surgery dataset: the median and 90th percentile waiting times mean that half and 90% respectively of patients whose surgery has been completed were able to have it within less than the time shown. The specialist clinic dataset says "new case bookings" rather than "completed"; the wording differs, and this article reads each on its own terms and draws no combined inference.

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#8 specialties, 7 clusters: all 56 cells

Within a single specialty, the widest cluster and the narrowest differ by as much as a factor of 3.6 (Psychiatry: Kowloon West 19 weeks against New Territories East 69 weeks) — and every one of those gaps falls in the column with no target.

The four tables below are the whole of the Authority's published waiting grid for this period. The statistical period runs 2025-07-01 to 2026-06-30, with the next update due 2026-10-30.

⚠️ The Authority publishes only these 8 specialties in this dataset and no others — cardiology, gastroenterology and other subspecialties do not appear separately but are counted within "Medicine"; likewise urology, breast surgery and the rest are counted within "Surgery". Cluster names follow the Authority's own usage.

Table one: median waiting time, urgent new cases (Authority target: within 2 weeks)

Table two: median waiting time, semi-urgent new cases (weeks; Authority target: within 8 weeks) Table three: median waiting time, stable new cases (weeks). The Authority publishes no standing waiting target for this category. Table four: 90th-percentile waiting time, stable new cases (weeks). The Authority's column heading reads "Stable new case - Longest", and its footnote defines that as the 90th percentile, meaning 90% of new cases are seen earlier than that time. ---

#Nearly everyone is in the "stable" column

Why does the "stable" column matter so much? Because nearly everyone is in it. The Authority publishes the total new case volume and the triage proportions for each specialty alongside the waiting times.

Booked new cases by specialty (the Authority notes that the figures exclude other cases pending triage):

The eight specialties add to 853,639 booked new cases. That total is this article's addition of the Authority's eight published figures; the Authority itself publishes no total.

Triage proportions by specialty:

⚠️ Anyone wanting to know what order of magnitude their own specialty is in has to read two things together. The smallest new case volume of the eight is Paediatrics (28,313) and the second smallest is Psychiatry (53,664), but Psychiatry has the highest proportion of stable cases (79%) and the longest 90th percentile of all, in New Territories East (104 weeks); Ophthalmology has the highest urgent proportion (30%), but the longest stable median and 90th percentile of the eight (New Territories East, 70 and 114 weeks).

Both of these hold at once: a small specialty is not a short wait, and a high urgent proportion is no advantage to a stable case.

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#The referral letter expires: issued within three months, or you cannot join the queue

A "specialist outpatient new case" means you hold a referral letter and are booking with a specialty for the first time; the time from that letter to seeing the doctor is what every figure above measures.

A few terms first. Specialist outpatient clinics are Hospital Authority clinics staffed by specialists, and are a different thing from family medicine clinics and general outpatient clinics. A new case means the specialty is taking you on for the first time, not a follow-up. A referral letter may come from an Authority general outpatient clinic, an accident and emergency department, another specialty, or a private doctor.

There is also a question of whether you can join the queue at all, not just how long it is. The Authority's service guide states that booking a new case appointment requires three things [Note 5]: a Hong Kong Identity Card (or valid identity document); a medical referral letter issued by a locally registered doctor within the past three months; and address details.

⚠️ So the referral letter expires: it has to have been issued by a locally registered doctor within the past three months. After three months you need a doctor to write a fresh one before you can enter the queue that all the figures above measure — holding an old letter does not mean you are in the queue.

The same page states that identity documents should be brought on the day of the appointment, along with any test reports and X-ray films.

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#Triage has three categories, and the category is not yours to choose

What happens after the referral letter arrives? The Authority's own wording is: specialist outpatient clinics operate a triage system under which newly referred cases are usually screened by a nurse and then reviewed by a doctor of the relevant specialty, and are classified as urgent, semi-urgent or stable [Note 1].

In one sentence: triage has two layers — nurse screening first, then specialist review — and the category is set after that.

⚠️ The patient does not choose this category, and it is not first come, first served; how long you wait is decided mainly by the category, and only after that by which specialty and which cluster.

One more thing is easy to miss. The Authority adds a note to each specialty's page: excluding other cases pending triage.

So every "booked new cases" figure below has already had cases still awaiting triage subtracted from it. Those people do not exist in the statistics, and the Authority does not publish how many of them there are.

⚠️ Anyone who has just received a referral letter and wants to know whether they are "in the queue yet" should note this: until the appointment slip arrives, the case may still be at the pending-triage stage, and that stage appears in no published figure at all.

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#Why is there a wait? The Government's own document gives the diagnosis

The wait is not a matter of one Authority department performing badly; it is the result of four structural problems the Government itself sets out in a Legislative Council paper [Note 6].

The paper on public healthcare fee reform discussed by the Legislative Council Panel on Health Services on 14 April 2025 lists four points from the Administration:

(The word "optical" at point (iii) is the document's own; the Administration evidently meant "optimal", and it is reproduced here as it stands.)

Put another way, the official diagnosis is: half the doctors caring for 90% of inpatients, subsidy concentrated on minor conditions, 10% of bookings that nobody turns up for, and an ageing population pushing demand past supply. Those four points are the rationale for the fee reform of 1 January 2026, and they are the official answer to "why is there a wait".

⚠️ Worth noting that not one of the four is "the waiting-time targets are not set strictly enough".

Anyone wondering whether their own hospital is unusually bad should know that the official account of it is systemic, not local.

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#You may choose the cluster, but changing once has a price

The cluster gaps in tables three and four are not simply fate landing on you: the Authority states that patients may choose the cluster in which to book a specialist outpatient new case appointment [Note 7].

Question 6 of the FAQ makes clear who that applies to — the first paragraph covers urgent and semi-urgent cases, and only the second covers stable ones: for stable cases, patients may choose the cluster in which to book their specialist outpatient new case appointment, though staff will also take the patient's condition and service needs into account when arranging it.

So the choice has two limits: the people it is written for are stable cases — the ones waiting longest and with no official target — and the Authority reserves room to arrange according to condition and service need, and to advise attending somewhere near you.

⚠️ And for changing cluster after the first attendance, the Chinese version spells out a price. The Chinese text of question 8 says that after obtaining a doctor's referral letter a patient may book at a clinic in their own district and join the queue afresh [Note 8].

The English version of the same question tells you to ring the clinic and ask about "the waiting arrangement" without saying that the arrangement is to start again; the four Chinese characters 「重新輪候」 state the outcome directly. From the English alone you would know there is a waiting arrangement to ask about, but not that the arrangement is to start over.

For a stable new case holding a referral letter and not yet booked: choosing the cluster is a step that is in your hands, and the moment it is worth most is the first booking — change after attending, and the Chinese version says you queue again from the start.

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#Whose experience is "longest 114 weeks"? Five qualifiers, none of them optional

114 weeks is nobody's waiting time, and it is not "public ophthalmology in Hong Kong takes 114 weeks"; it is the line, within the single cell for Ophthalmology × New Territories East, below which 90% of new cases are seen.

Unpacked, the figure carries three limits.

One, scope. It describes only ophthalmology new cases in the New Territories East cluster. Over the same period, ophthalmology's 90th percentile was 58 weeks in Hong Kong East and 55 in Hong Kong West — almost identical. The Authority publishes by cluster, not by hospital and not by clinic, so both "hospital X takes two years" and "public ophthalmology in Hong Kong takes two years" go beyond what this dataset can support.

Two, statistics. It is the 90th percentile, not the maximum; how long the remaining 10% wait is not published. So "longest" as a column heading is a misleading shorthand, and it is misleading identically in both languages — the English heading reads "Stable Case - The Longest" and the Chinese 「穩定新症 - 最長」, and in both you have to read the footnote to learn it is the 90th percentile.

Three, category. It describes stable new cases only. In that same cell, ophthalmology in New Territories East, the urgent median is "less than 1 week" and the semi-urgent is 6 weeks.

⚠️ The correct way to cite these figures is "specialty, cluster, stable new cases, 90th percentile, statistical period X to Y" — five qualifiers, none of them optional. Drop any one and a single cell becomes an overall impression that does not exist.

For anyone alarmed by a headline saying "public specialists take two years": that figure is usually the widest of the 56 cells.

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#Referred today, how many months apart are the median and the 90th percentile?

What follows converts two already-quoted figures into months and calendar dates, to show how far apart the median and the 90th percentile are. It is a statistical conversion, not a prediction about any individual case.

Take the medicine cluster with the highest stable median this period — Medicine, Kowloon Central: median 65 weeks, 90th percentile 98 weeks.

⚠️ Units first, because this is where the mistake is easiest: 1 month is not 4 weeks. A year of 52 weeks ÷ 12 months = about 4.33 weeks a month. Dividing by 4 systematically overstates the months by about 8%: 65 weeks ÷ 4 = 16.25 months, ÷ 4.33 = 15.0 months.

The distance between those two dates is how far apart "half of people" and "90% of people" are, statistically, in the same cell, the same specialty and the same cluster: close to eight months.

Do the same sum in the shortest cell — Paediatrics, Kowloon East: median 10 weeks, 90th percentile 36 weeks: +10 weeks = 10 October 2026; +36 weeks = 10 April 2027. A gap of 26 weeks ≈ 6.0 months.

⚠️ The point of this is not which cluster is better. Anyone — this article included — who tells you "you will wait about X" using the median alone has left out half the people.

For anyone deciding between waiting in the public system and paying privately: all this section can offer is how wide the public distribution is — from median to 90th percentile, the 56 cells range from 0.2 months to 15.0 months, and 31 of them exceed 8 months. Private prices are outside this article's scope.

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#Why the table has 7 clusters when the Authority's website has 6

Because the waiting statistics still use the old cluster boundaries while the Authority's organisational structure has changed — and the Authority says so in its own footnote [Note 9]: the information on the page is divided according to the former hospital cluster boundaries; the Hong Kong East and Hong Kong West clusters were formally merged into the Hong Kong Island cluster with effect from 1 April 2026, and the relevant information will be updated in due course.

The merger itself was announced in a Government press release (26 March 2026, issued on behalf of the Authority): the Hong Kong Island cluster will manage 14 hospitals (the release's population figure is in the English original at [Note 9]).

So operationally the Authority now has 6 clusters (Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Central, Kowloon East, Kowloon West, New Territories East, New Territories West), while the waiting data still has 7 rows, with Hong Kong East and Hong Kong West separate.

Three practical consequences for a reader:

1. "Hong Kong East" and "Hong Kong West" in the table are two units that have already merged. The gap between them this period is sometimes large and sometimes not: medicine medians of 29 against 27 and surgery 90th percentiles of 86 against 83 are nearly identical, but ophthalmology medians of 24 against 36 and psychiatry medians of 27 against 46 are close to double. How they will be reported after the merger, the Authority has not said.
2. ⚠️ The cluster in the table may not be the cluster your hospital now belongs to. What you are matching against is the former cluster boundaries, not the current cluster directory on the Authority's website.
3. The Authority says only that the information "will be updated in due course", and does not say whether the next round (30 October 2026) will move to 6 rows.

Hong Kong Island residents should note this particularly: you are the only group for whom the table's districts do not match the Authority's current structure.

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#If your condition worsens while waiting, the official answer is to telephone

The Authority has a passage written directly for patients whose condition deteriorates while waiting, and it tells you to contact the clinic yourself [Note 10]: if a patient's condition deteriorates during the wait, the patient may contact the specialist outpatient clinic concerned to request an earlier appointment, and if the condition is urgent the patient may also attend an accident and emergency department.

⚠️ In one sentence: condition worsening → ring the specialist outpatient clinic you are queueing at and ask for an earlier appointment; condition urgent → go to accident and emergency.

The clinic to ring is the specialist outpatient clinic you are queueing at, not the clinic that referred you and not Authority headquarters. The passage does not require you to prove anything first, and names no application form.

The Authority's service guide points the same way: a patient who develops an emergency condition while waiting for specialist outpatient services should attend the nearest accident and emergency department immediately.

Whether the triage category itself changes as a result, the official documents do not say. The Authority's published documents describe no procedure for "applying to be re-triaged", and say nothing to the effect that a patient may not raise it. The following are the other official passages this article can cite, each with its own stated scope [Note 11]:

• The triage category is set by clinical staff, not chosen by the patient. (Source: the Authority's specialist outpatient waiting time PDF; scope: triage of specialist outpatient new cases.)
• Accident and emergency triage category I (critical) and category II (emergency) patients are exempt from the accident and emergency charge. (Source: the Authority's fee schedule, effective 1 January 2026; scope: accident and emergency charges.)
• Transferring across clusters to a hospital with a shorter wait is possible, but the patient must first queue for a specialist outpatient appointment in the receiving cluster and be seen before entering the surgical waiting list. (Source: the Authority's "Supplementary Information on Waiting Time" page; the scope is surgical waiting, not specialist outpatient new case waiting — cited here within the scope of the original, without extrapolation.)
• Clinical urgency can override queue order. On its cataract surgery waiting page the Authority writes that the attending doctor will discuss the patient's clinical condition and needs with them and schedule surgery according to the urgency of the condition, and that the arrangement is not based solely on the order in which patients were placed on the waiting list. (Scope: the cataract surgery waiting list.)

⚠️ How a category is changed is for clinical staff to decide; but telephoning the clinic to ask for an earlier appointment is a step the official text itself tells you to take. Whether your category should change, when, and to what, the published documents do not answer; only your doctor and the specialist team receiving the referral can assess that — but do not stay silent because you have heard that triage categories cannot be changed.

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#Charges: $250 a visit, and a $10,000 annual cap you have to apply for

Specialist outpatient charges became a flat $250 per attendance for eligible persons from 1 January 2026, and the old distinction between $135 for a first attendance and $80 for a follow-up has gone [Note 12].

The old-and-new comparison table the Government published on 25 March 2025 reads, word for word in the Chinese: specialist outpatient (including allied health clinics), first attendance $135 → $250; follow-up $80 — the post-reform column prints a single $250 and gives no separate figure for follow-ups. That is, after the change the first attendance and the follow-up cost the same and there is no second figure.

Under the same reform, investigations arising from a specialist outpatient attendance also began to be charged item by item (for eligible persons):

The second layer of protection: an annual charge cap of HK$10,000. The Authority has set an annual cap of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars on public healthcare charges for eligible patients, with no means test; once an application is approved, the patient pays no further "eligible medical fees and charges" for the rest of that year [Note 13].

⚠️ Which is to say: nobody checks how much money you have, but you must apply.

The Authority lists four eligibility requirements: the applicant must be an eligible person; must have paid $10,000 in cumulative "eligible medical fees and charges" within the year; must owe the Authority nothing at the time of application; and the hospital services received must not have been determined by the Authority to be without clinical need.

The mechanism: it runs by calendar year (1 January to 31 December); the application window runs from 1 January of that year to 31 March of the following year, and "late applications will not be accepted"; "the assessment process normally takes 14 days"; and "a fresh application is required for each year". Specialist outpatient service is one of the "eligible public healthcare services", but "self-financed drugs and medical devices are excluded".

The application has to be made actively; it does not take effect automatically once ten thousand dollars has been paid — but the patient need not do it in person. Once cumulative eligible medical fees reach ten thousand dollars, the patient may apply through "HA Go" or at the shroff office of any hospital; and if the patient cannot attend in person, someone else may submit it — anyone registered as a carer on "HA Go" can apply directly on the patient's behalf, while anyone else needs a signature and then submits the form at a hospital shroff office.

⚠️ Two more things still apply after the form goes in: while the result is pending, Authority bills issued from the date of application must still be paid; and once approved, you must state at each hospital service registration that the annual charge cap has been approved, or you will be charged eligible medical fees and charges again.

(Also: if the amount already paid before approval exceeds ten thousand dollars, the Authority states that the excess will be applied to eligible medical fees in subsequent years with no time limit, rather than refunded in the ordinary way; in special circumstances, such as the patient's death, refund arrangements may be raised with the hospital.)

One little-known exemption: the Government's press release of 31 October 2025 states that the specialist outpatient clinics of Tung Wah Eastern Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital and Kwong Wah Hospital, under the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, continue to waive the specialist outpatient consultation fee for eligible persons aged 75 or above and 12 or below (not including their integrated clinics and allied health clinics).

As for public-private partnership: the Authority runs invitation-based specialist schemes, such as the cataract surgery programme, but their published record has an obvious gap — see "What this article does not state" at the end.

For anyone with many follow-ups in a year, or hospital admissions on top of specialist outpatient visits: $250 a visit does not look like much, but with investigations, drugs and admissions the $10,000 cap is one you will actually reach — remember that you have to apply for it yourself, reapply every year, and that there is a deadline (31 March of the following year, with late applications not accepted).

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#Are these figures improving? There is a record, but you cannot verify it

There is an officially published record of improvement, but it cannot be subtracted directly from this period's figures, because the two are counted in different units.

A Legislative Council Panel on Health Services paper of 11 July 2025 published three improvement lines for the 90th percentile for stable new cases [Note 2]: Medicine 122 weeks (2021-22) → 92 weeks (2023-24); Ear, Nose and Throat 93 (2022-23) → 79 (2024-25); Orthopaedics 91 (2022-23) → 73 (2024-25).

⚠️ Why can this not be compared directly with table four? Because this period's published data is broken down by cluster only, with no Authority-wide 90th percentile for stable new cases published at all. Medicine's highest in table four is Kowloon Central at 98 weeks and its lowest Hong Kong West at 50 — "98 > 92" does not show a deterioration, because 98 is one cluster and 92 is a system-wide figure. That limit belongs to the data itself, and this article does not fill it in by estimation.

The fee reform's five principles (from the same Legislative Council paper) include two that bear on this: charging a co-payment to those who can afford it and to minor cases; and maintaining a high level of subsidy, with the aim of keeping the overall public subsidy rate at 90%. The same paper states how the subsidy rate moves: "as high as 97.6%" before the reform, and "about 94%" after its first stage.

Put another way, the official frame is not "prices are going up" but a shift of subsidy from minor conditions towards serious illness and poorer patients; and waiting time itself has no corresponding target among those five principles.

One conflict in the figures that has to be recorded as it stands. On the number benefiting from the waiver mechanism, official documents have given two different sets of numbers [Note 14]:

The more recent of these (19 July 2026) supersedes the earlier estimate. The two sets have plainly different bases (300,000 against about 900,000), and no official document states that the two measure the same thing — the 2025 papers speak of the additional number made eligible by the enhanced fee waiver mechanism, and the 2026 one of the number potentially benefiting. This article sets the two side by side with their dates and does not reconcile two official documents on their behalf.

The same press release of 19 July 2026 also gives actual figures for the reform's first six months: as at 30 June the Authority had received 289 799 applications, of which 264 087 were approved, an approval rate of over 90%; and on the annual charge cap, 10 595 patients whose applications were approved pay nothing further in eligible medical fees for the rest of the year.

Set against the expectation in the Legislative Council paper of April 2025 — that about 70 000 seriously ill patients a year would benefit from the annual cap — six months produced 10,595 approvals. The two figures and their dates are set side by side here; this article offers no reason for the gap.

⚠️ For anyone trying to judge whether waiting will get better: the Government has published improvement lines for three specialties, but the way the current data is reported makes it impossible to verify a trend from this period's figures yourself — and that is itself worth knowing.

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#What to do next

1. Check first that the referral letter is still in date. It must have been issued by a locally registered doctor within the past three months; past that, it has to be written again.
2. Ask which category you have been put in. Urgent and semi-urgent have a standing target and stable does not; that distinction matters far more than which hospital you pick.
3. If you are a stable case, the choice of cluster is in your hands, and the moment it is worth most is the first booking. Change after attending and the Chinese version says you queue again from the start.
4. Match against the former cluster boundaries. Hong Kong East and Hong Kong West are still two rows in the table but merged in fact on 1 April 2026.
5. If your condition worsens while waiting, ring the specialist outpatient clinic you are queueing at and ask for an earlier appointment; if it is urgent, go to accident and emergency. The official text itself tells you to do this, and you need prove nothing first.
6. With many follow-ups in a year, remember that the $10,000 annual charge cap has to be applied for, reapplied for each year, with a deadline of 31 March the following year and late applications not accepted.
7. Seeing a report that says "a two-year wait", ask for all five qualifiers: which specialty, which cluster, which category, median or 90th percentile, and which statistical period.

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#Frequently asked questions

How long is the wait for a public specialist clinic now?

It depends on the triage category, the specialty and the cluster. For the statistical period 2025-07-01 to 2026-06-30: urgent new case medians are all "less than 1 week" or "1 week"; semi-urgent 2 to 7 weeks; stable new case medians 10 to 70 weeks, with a 90th percentile of 16 to 114 weeks. The cell-by-cell figures are in the four tables above.

The table says "longest" — is that the most I will wait?

No. The Authority's footnote states that the column is the 90th percentile, meaning 90% of new cases are seen earlier than that time; how long the remaining 10% wait is not published. The column heading reads "longest" in both the Chinese and the English.

Has the Authority ever set a waiting target for stable new cases?

Not a standing "within so many weeks" target — the only standing targets of that kind the Authority publishes are two: a median within 2 weeks for urgent new cases and within 8 weeks for semi-urgent. The Government has separately published time-limited performance-agreement reduction targets for shortening the 90th percentile for stable new cases in particular specialties in particular years, such as Medicine by 20% in 2023-24 and Ear, Nose and Throat and Orthopaedics by 10% each in 2024-25.

Why does the table have 7 clusters when the Authority says there are 6?

The Authority notes that the information on the page is divided according to the former hospital cluster boundaries; Hong Kong East and Hong Kong West merged into the Hong Kong Island cluster on 1 April 2026, and "the relevant information will be updated in due course". So the cluster in the table may not be the cluster your hospital now belongs to.

What does a specialist outpatient visit cost now?

For eligible persons, $250 per attendance and $20 per drug item (charged per 4 weeks), effective 1 January 2026; the old distinction between $135 for a first attendance and $80 for a follow-up has gone. For non-eligible persons it is $850 per attendance and $90 per drug item.

What can I do if my condition worsens while waiting?

The Authority states that if a patient's condition deteriorates during the wait, they may contact the specialist outpatient clinic concerned to request an earlier appointment, and may attend accident and emergency if the condition is urgent. That means ringing the specialist outpatient clinic you are queueing at. The triage category itself is set by nurse screening and specialist review rather than chosen by the patient; whether that category changes as a result, the official documents do not say.

Does the referral letter expire?

Yes. The Authority's service guide states that a new case booking requires "a medical referral letter issued by a locally registered doctor within the past three months", along with a Hong Kong Identity Card (or valid identity document) and address details; past three months, a doctor has to write a fresh one.

Can I choose a cluster with a shorter wait?

The Authority states that patients may choose the cluster in which to book a specialist outpatient new case appointment, and the second paragraph of FAQ question 6 makes clear that this is addressed to stable cases; staff will also consider the patient's condition and service needs, and may advise attending somewhere near home. But for changing cluster for follow-up after the first attendance, the Chinese version of question 8 says that after obtaining a referral letter one may book at a clinic in one's own district and join the queue afresh.

Where can I look up the waiting time for my specialty at my hospital?

The Authority publishes only 8 broad specialties × cluster, with no breakdown by hospital or subspecialty. For what is not published, the Authority's own answer is FAQ question 4: when booking a specialist service, patients may ask clinic staff about the expected waiting time for the specialty concerned.

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#What this article does not state

Each of the following is not published in the official material. They are listed so that a reader knows where the answers are not.

• The Authority publishes no standing "within so many weeks" waiting target for stable new cases. The only standing targets are urgent (2 weeks) and semi-urgent (8 weeks). The Government's time-limited performance-agreement reduction targets for particular specialties in particular years are quoted in the body and are not repeated here.
• The Authority has never described a procedure for "applying to be re-triaged", and does not publish whether a category changes when a condition deteriorates. It has published a route for deterioration while waiting (contact the specialist outpatient clinic to request an earlier appointment; attend accident and emergency if urgent), quoted above; how the triage category itself is handled is not published. The cross-cluster transfer and clinical urgency passages quoted in that section come from the specialist surgery waiting page and the cataract surgery page respectively, their scope is stated sentence by sentence there, and this article does not extrapolate them to specialist outpatient new cases.
• The 90th percentile for urgent and semi-urgent new cases is not published. The Authority publishes only medians for those two categories, and the targets are likewise set at the median; how long the slower half waits, the published data cannot answer.
• This period's published data contains no Authority-wide median or 90th percentile for stable new cases, only the values for each of the 7 clusters; this article therefore does not subtract this period's figures from the system-wide 90th percentiles for 2021-22 to 2024-25.
• The waiting figures are not broken down by hospital or by subspecialty. The Authority publishes only 8 broad specialties in this dataset; cardiology, gastroenterology and the rest do not appear separately.
• The number of cases "pending triage" is not published. The Authority notes that booked new case figures exclude other cases pending triage, but does not publish how many those are.
• How long the 10% beyond the stable 90th percentile wait is not published.
• The proportion, conditions or mechanism for re-triage from "stable" to "urgent" are not published.
• How the merged cluster will be reported is not published. The Authority says only that "the relevant information will be updated in due course", and does not say whether the next round (30 October 2026) will move to 6 clusters.
• The record of public-private partnership invitation batches has a gap. The published patient waiting and invitation batch record for the Authority's cataract surgery programme stops at batch 57, invited in November 2023; batches for 2024, 2025 and 2026 are not published. (That programme is cataract surgery, not specialist outpatient new cases; it is recorded here because public-private partnership is often treated as the way out of "cannot wait for the public system".)
• The total of 853,639 booked new cases across the eight specialties is this article's own addition; the Authority publishes no total.
• This article does not rank any doctor, clinic or hospital, and gives no medical advice on any individual situation.

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#Notes: the official wording

Where a source publishes in English, the wording below is the source's own. Where a passage exists only in Chinese, the rendering is ours and is marked as such, with the original set out alongside so it can be checked.

[Note 1] The triage system and the two standing targets, in the Authority's English:

Specialist outpatient clinics have implemented a triage system to ensure patients with urgent conditions requiring early intervention are treated with priority. Referrals of new patients are usually first screened by a nurse and then by a specialist doctor of the relevant specialty for classification into Urgent, Semi-urgent and Stable categories. HA's targets are to maintain the median waiting time of Urgent and Semi-urgent cases within two weeks and eight weeks respectively.

The Chinese of the same document says the same thing, and neither language mentions stable new cases in the target sentence:

專科門診診所實施分流制度，確保病情緊急並需要及早診治的病人獲得優先跟進及治療。新轉介個案通常先由護士甄別，再經有關專科醫生覆核，然後分為緊急、半緊急和穩定個案。醫管局的目標是把緊急及半緊急新症的輪候時間中位數，分別維持在兩個星期和八個星期之內。

The other note on each specialty's page is printed bilingually on one line:

( 2 ) 不包括有待分流的其他個案。 Excluding cases pending for triage.

[Note 2] The performance-agreement reduction targets, from the Legislative Council Panel on Health Services paper of 11 July 2025, Progress Update on Enhancements of Public Healthcare Services:

the HA has achieved the targets set in the PA to reduce the 90th percentile waiting time of stable new case bookings for the Internal Medicine SOPCs by 20% in 2023-24 (i.e. from 122 weeks in 2021-22 to 92 weeks in 2023-24), and to reduce the waiting time of stable new case bookings for two specialties, namely Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) as well as Orthopaedics and Traumatology, by 10% in 2024-25 (i.e. from 93 and 91 weeks in 2022-23 respectively to 79 and 73 weeks in 2024-25 respectively).

[Note 3] The "as far as possible" wording. FAQ question 6 in English:

Patients classified as urgent and semi-urgent will be arranged to have the consultation within 2 weeks and 8 weeks respectively as far as possible.

The Authority's Chinese page on specialist outpatient triage arrangements has a sentence with no English counterpart, and the Chinese version of that question differs from the English in the same direction. The renderings are ours, with the originals alongside:

Patients classified as urgent and semi-urgent will, as far as staff are able to arrange it, be seen within two weeks and eight weeks respectively. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

被列為緊急及半緊急的病人，醫護人員會盡量安排他們於兩星期及八星期內就診。

Most urgent and semi-urgent cases can be seen within two weeks and eight weeks respectively. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

大部分緊急和半緊急個案均可在兩星期及八星期內就診

The Chinese is a statement about most cases; the English is a statement about effort.

[Note 4] The definition of the 90th percentile, printed bilingually in the Authority's footnote:

( 1 ) 最長(第90個百分位數)輪候時間，是指有90%的新症可以在早於顯示的輪候時間內就診。 The longest (90th percentile) waiting time implies that appointments are earlier than the indicated time in 90% of the new case bookings.

The corresponding wording in the cataract surgery dataset speaks of patients whose surgery has been completed, while the specialist outpatient wording speaks of new case bookings. The rendering is ours:

The median and 90th percentile waiting times mean respectively that half and 90% of patients whose surgery has been completed were able to receive it within less than the waiting time shown. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

輪候時間的中位數及第90個百分位數分別是指有一半和90%已完成手術的病人可以短於所顯示的輪候時間內接受手術。

[Note 5] The Authority's specialist outpatient service guide, the three requirements for a new case booking. The rendering is ours:

A Hong Kong Identity Card (or valid identity document); a medical referral letter issued by a locally registered doctor within the past three months; address details. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

香港身份證 (或有效身份證明文件)　由本地註冊醫生在最近三個月內簽發的醫生轉介信　住址資料

The same page also states, in our rendering, that a patient who develops an emergency condition while waiting for specialist outpatient services should attend the nearest accident and emergency department immediately.

[Note 6] The four structural problems, from the Legislative Council Panel on Health Services paper of 14 April 2025, Public Healthcare Fees and Charges Reform (LC Paper No. CB(3)453/2025(04)), whose original is in English, quoted verbatim:

(i) Imbalanced System: There has been a serious imbalance between the public and private healthcare systems for a long time, with about half of the doctors working in the public healthcare system but taking care of 90% of the in-patients. This imbalance has resulted in the public healthcare system being overburdened while the private healthcare system has not been able to share the pressure effectively;

(ii) Mismatch of resources: Under the existing subsidisation structure, more subsidies are provided for minor illnesses and relatively less subsidies for major illnesses... accident and emergency ("A&E") departments are positioned to handle emergency cases, but in fact about 60% of the patients seeking treatment are in fact not emergency cases;

(iii) Service wastage: The existing fees and charges levels are not be able to direct the optical use of resources... about 10% of the patients do not receive the services as scheduled after making an appointment, resulting in wastage.

(iv) Demand exceeds supply: Hong Kong's ageing population and rising rate of chronic diseases have resulted in long waiting times and pressure on service quality.

The word "optical" at point (iii) is the document's own; the Administration evidently meant "optimal", and it is reproduced as it stands. Of that document's five reform principles, the two this article cites:

(ii) Co-payment for those who can afford and co-payment by those with mild conditions: the Government will reasonably expand and enhance the co-payment mechanism;

(iv) High subsidisation: the high level of subsidy will be maintained after the reform, with the target of maintaining the 90% overall public subsidisation rate;

On the subsidy rate: "a subsidy rate as high as 97.6%" before the reform, and after the first stage it "will be about 94%". On the annual cap: "about 70 000 patients with serious conditions will benefit from this measure each year".

[Note 7] Choosing the cluster. The Authority's waiting time page says this only in Chinese; the rendering is ours:

The Authority has posted up-to-date waiting time information on its website and in specialist outpatient clinics, and patients may choose the cluster in which to book a specialist outpatient new case appointment. But the Authority reminds patients that choosing a specialist outpatient clinic in the cluster covering their district of residence makes follow-up attendance and the use of community support services more convenient. Staff will also take the patient's condition and service needs into account when arranging a specialist outpatient booking, and may advise and arrange for the patient to attend a specialist outpatient clinic near their home. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

醫管局已在網頁和專科門診診所展示輪候時間的最新資料，病人可以自行選擇聯網預約專科門診新症。但醫管局提醒病人，選擇居住地區所屬聯網內的專科門診，可以方便覆診和使用社區支援服務。而醫護人員在安排預約專科門診服務時，亦會考慮病人的病況及所需服務，或會建議及安排病人在鄰近其住所的專科門診就診。

The second paragraph of FAQ question 6 names who this applies to:

For stable cases, patients may choose the cluster in which to book a specialist outpatient new case appointment, but staff will also take the patient's condition and service needs into account when arranging the booking. For patients needing community support services and frequent follow-up treatment, for example, Authority staff may advise and arrange for them to attend a specialist outpatient clinic near their home, to make follow-up attendance and the use of community support services more convenient. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

就穩定個案，病人可以自行選擇聯網預約專科門診新症，但醫護人員在安排預約專科門診服務時，亦會考慮病人的病況及所需服務。例如，就需要社區支援服務和頻密的跟進治療的病人，醫管局職員或會建議及安排病人在鄰近其住所的專科門診就診，以方便覆診和使用社區支援服務。

[Note 8] The price of changing cluster. The English of FAQ question 8:

Patients can approach their doctors to make referral for specialist out-patient services in other cluster and make booking for the services in other cluster with the referral letter. For details on the waiting arrangement, patients may contact respective clinic.

The Chinese of the same question says what the arrangement is. The rendering is ours:

Patients may ask their doctor about receiving specialist services in another cluster. Having obtained a referral letter, the patient may book the service at a clinic in that district and join the queue afresh. Since waiting arrangements differ between specialties, patients may ask the staff of the specialty concerned about the detailed arrangements. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

病人可向醫生提出到其他聯網接受專科服務。病人在獲得醫生轉介信後，可到當區診所預約服務並重新輪候。由於個別專科在輪候安排不盡相同，病人可向有關專科醫護人員查詢詳細安排。

The English tells the reader to ring the clinic about "the waiting arrangement" without saying that the arrangement is to start again; the four Chinese characters 「重新輪候」 state the outcome directly.

[Note 9] The footnote on the former cluster boundaries, printed bilingually:

( 2 ) 本頁資料按舊有醫院聯網界線劃分。港島東醫院聯網和港島西醫院聯網已於2026年4月1日起，正式合併為香港島醫院聯網，相關資料將於稍後作出更新。 The information on this page is based on the old clustering arrangement. The Hong Kong East Cluster and the Hong Kong West Cluster have officially been integrated to establish the Hong Kong Island Cluster from 1 April 2026. The information will be updated in due course.

The Government press release of 26 March 2026, issued on behalf of the Authority:

The Hospital Authority (HA) announced today (March 26) that the Hong Kong East Cluster (HKEC) and the Hong Kong West Cluster (HKWC) will officially be integrated to establish the Hong Kong Island Cluster (HKIC) from April 1.

Moving forward, the HKIC will manage 14 hospitals... primarily serving around 1.2 million residents on Hong Kong Island.

[Note 10] Deterioration while waiting, the last paragraph of the Authority's Chinese page on specialist outpatient triage arrangements. The rendering is ours:

If a patient's condition deteriorates during the wait, the patient may contact the specialist outpatient clinic concerned to request an earlier appointment with a doctor; if the condition is urgent, the patient may also attend an accident and emergency department. Staff will make arrangements as needed. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

若病人的狀況在輪候期間出現惡化，病人可聯絡有關的專科門診診所，要求提早約見醫生，若病情緊急，病人亦可到急症室求診。醫護人員會視乎需要作出安排。

[Note 11] Other official passages and their scope. Cross-cluster referral (the Authority's "Supplementary Information on Waiting Time" page; scope: specialist surgery waiting):

Patient can discuss with their attending surgeon to see whether they are suitable for referring to another HA hospital with shorter waiting time. If they are found suitable, referral letters will be issued. Patients are required to book for the specialist out-patient service and attend the consultation before they are being put on the waiting list for elective surgery in the short-wait cluster.

Clinical urgency (the Authority's cataract surgery page; scope: the cataract surgery waiting list). The rendering is ours:

After discussing the patient's clinical condition and needs with them, the attending doctor will schedule the surgery according to the urgency of the condition; the arrangement is not based solely on the order in which patients were entered on the waiting list. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

主治醫生會和病人討論其臨床情況及需要後，依據病情的迫切性安排手術時間；有關安排並非只根據病人被編入輪候名冊的先後時序。

[Note 12] The line in the fee schedule. The rendering is ours:

Specialist clinics (including integrated clinics and allied health clinics) | $250 per attendance, $20 per drug item, note 7 (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

專科診所 (包括綜合診所及專職醫療診所) | 每次診症250元，每種藥物20元 註7

Note 7 to that schedule states that each prescribed drug item is charged in units of four weeks. The Chinese of the old-and-new comparison table the Government published on 25 March 2025 reads, word for word: 「專科門診 (包括專職醫療診所) 首次 $135 → $250；覆診 $80」.

[Note 13] The annual charge cap, in the Authority's English:

the Hospital Authority (HA) establishes a second safety net by introducing a HK$10,000 cap on an eligible patient's annual spending for specified public medical fees and charges without requiring financial assessment with effect from 1 January 2026.

The Authority's own Chinese wording, in our rendering:

An annual cap of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars on public healthcare fees and charges, requiring no financial assessment, is established for eligible patients — the "Annual Charge Cap". Once an application is approved, the patient pays no further "eligible medical fees and charges" for the rest of that year. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

為合資格病人設立無需經濟審查的每年一萬港元公營醫療服務費用上限–「全年收費上限」。申請獲批後，該年度內病人將無需再支付任何「合資格醫療費用及收費」。

The rest of the mechanism's wording: the application window runs from 1 January of that year to 31 March of the following year, with late applications not accepted; the assessment process normally takes 14 days; and a fresh application is required for each year. The exemption at the three Tung Wah hospitals comes from the Government press release of 31 October 2025, whose wording for those covered is "Eligible Persons aged 75 or above, or aged 12 or below".

[Note 14] The two sets of figures for the number benefiting. Legislative Council CB(3)453/2025(04) (2025-04-14):

It is estimated that the number of eligible beneficiaries will increase from 300 000 to 1.4 million under the enhanced fee waiver mechanism.

Government press release (2025-10-31):

which will increase the number of eligible beneficiaries from 300 000 to 1.4 million

The Hospital Authority's press release of 2026-07-19, in Chinese, whose rendering is ours:

raising the number potentially benefiting substantially, from about 900,000 previously to about 2,000,000 (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

令潛在受惠人數由過去約90 萬人大幅增加至約200 萬人

The first-six-month figures in the same release of 19 July 2026, in our rendering: as at 30 June the Authority had received 289 799 applications, of which 264 087 were approved, an approval rate of over 90%; and on the annual charge cap, the 10 595 patients whose applications were approved pay nothing further in other eligible medical fees for the rest of the year.

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#Sources and dates checked

• Hospital Authority "Median Waiting Time for New Case Booking at Specialist Out-patient Clinics" open data (Chinese), the urgent, semi-urgent and stable medians and the stable 90th percentile for 8 specialties × 7 clusters, the booked new case numbers and the triage proportions: https://www.ha.org.hk/opendata/sop/sop-waiting-time-tc.json, statistical period 2025-07-01 to 2026-06-30, next update 2026-10-30, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• The same Authority dataset (English), with the column heading "Stable Case - The Longest": https://www.ha.org.hk/opendata/sop/sop-waiting-time-en.json, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority, "Waiting Time for Stable New Case Booking at Specialist Out-patient Clinics" (bilingual PDF), the description of the triage system, the urgent 2 weeks and semi-urgent 8 weeks targets, the 90th percentile footnote, the "excluding cases pending for triage" footnote, the former cluster boundary footnote, and the new case totals by specialty: https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sopc/dw_wait_ls.pdf, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority, specialist outpatient triage arrangements (Chinese), the three triage categories, the "as far as possible" wording for urgent within two weeks and semi-urgent within eight weeks, and the route for deterioration while waiting: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=214169&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (English version at Lang=ENG), the page carrying no revision date of its own, retrieved 2026-08-02.
• Hospital Authority, specialist outpatient waiting time FAQ (Chinese and English), question 4 on asking clinic staff about the expected waiting time, question 6 on stable cases being able to choose the cluster, and question 8 on queueing afresh after changing cluster (Chinese version) with the corresponding English wording: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=282825&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (English version at Lang=ENG), the page stating "(updated 6 November 2020)", retrieved 2026-08-02.
• Hospital Authority specialist outpatient waiting time page (Chinese), that patients may choose the cluster in which to book, and the reminder about attending near home: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=214177&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (English version at Lang=ENG), retrieved 2026-08-02.
• Hospital Authority specialist outpatient service guide (Chinese), the three requirements for a new case booking (Hong Kong Identity Card, a referral letter issued by a locally registered doctor within the past three months, address details), bringing test reports and X-ray films to the appointment, and attending the nearest accident and emergency department in an emergency while waiting: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=10053&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (English version at Lang=ENG), the page carrying no revision date of its own, retrieved 2026-08-02.
• Government press release, "Hospital Authority establishes Hong Kong Island Cluster and appoints Cluster Chief Executive" (issued on behalf of the Authority), the merger of the Hong Kong East and West clusters on 2026-04-01 and the Hong Kong Island cluster managing 14 hospitals: https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202603/26/P2026032600280.htm, 2026-03-26, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority fees and charges (Chinese), $250 per specialist clinic attendance, $20 per drug item, note 7 on the four-week charging unit, the tiered pathology and radiology charges, the charges for non-eligible persons, and the definition of eligible persons: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=10045&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML, effective 2026-01-01, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority "Fees and Charges" (English), the English version of the same schedule: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=10045&Lang=ENG&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority "Annual Charge Cap" (for eligible persons), the HK$10,000 cap, "without requiring financial assessment", the four eligibility requirements, applying through "HA Go" or a hospital shroff office, the application deadline and the 14-day assessment, bills still payable while the result is pending, the need to declare approval at registration, and excess amounts being carried to subsequent years: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=281820&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (English version at Lang=ENG), effective 2026-01-01, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Government press release, "Hospital Authority implements fees and charges reform rationalising healthcare services and enhancing patient protection", and the Authority's Chinese release, the old-and-new comparison (specialist outpatient first attendance $135 / follow-up $80 → $250; drugs $15 per 16 weeks → $20 per 4 weeks): https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202503/25/P2025032500462.htm; the Authority's Chinese release https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/pad/279238_TC.pdf, 2025-03-25, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Government press release, "HA announces application arrangements under enhanced medical fee waiving mechanism", the specialist outpatient consultation fee waiver at the three Tung Wah Group hospitals (eligible persons aged 75 or above and 12 or below) and the gazettal arrangements: https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202510/31/P2025103100494.htm, 2025-10-31, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Legislative Council Panel on Health Services paper, Public Healthcare Fees and Charges Reform (LC Paper No. CB(3)453/2025(04)), the four structural problems, the five reform principles, the subsidy rate 97.6% → about 94%, beneficiaries 300 000 → 1.4 million, and the expectation that about 70 000 seriously ill patients a year would benefit from the annual cap: https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr2025/english/panels/hs/papers/hs20250414cb3-453-4-e.pdf, 2025-04-14, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Legislative Council Panel on Health Services paper, Progress Update on Enhancements of Public Healthcare Services, the historical stable new case 90th percentiles for Medicine, Ear Nose and Throat and Orthopaedics: https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr2025/english/panels/hs/papers/hs20250711cb3-1078-5-e.pdf, 2025-07-11, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority press release on the public healthcare fees and charges reform strengthening protection for the poor, the acutely and seriously ill (Chinese) and its English version, the number potentially benefiting rising from about 900,000 to about 2,000,000, the 289 799 applications and 264 087 approvals, and the 10 595 annual charge cap approvals: https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/pad/283499_CHI1.pdf; English version https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/pad/283499_ENG1.pdf, 2026-07-19, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority "Supplementary Information on Waiting Time", cross-cluster referral requiring a specialist outpatient booking in the receiving cluster first (scope: specialist surgery waiting): https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=214186&Lang=ENG&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority cataract surgery booking page, the statement that clinical urgency can override queue order (scope: the cataract surgery waiting list): https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=214184&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML, retrieved 2026-08-01.
• Hospital Authority cataract surgery programme patient waiting times, the published invitation batch record stopping at batch 57, invited in November 2023: https://www4.ha.org.hk/ppp/docs/default-source/csp---useful-information/status-in-web_t-chi152dcbbe07a04d6ba17c475aa0429181.pdf, retrieved 2026-08-01.

#Further reading

• On this platform: Alternatives to the public queue

This article was written from the sources listed above. It is about the Authority's published statistics, its triage system and its charges; how long you personally will wait, it does not answer — the triage category and the waiting arrangements are decided by doctors on clinical grounds.