Elective Cataract Surgery


The choice and the timing of the surgery are worked out together by the patient and doctor after the evaluation of the clinical conditions. Patients are treated based on the seriousness of their illness and not only in the order of when they were added to the list.

As at 31 March 2025, there were 67,854 cataract surgery bookings in Eye Specialty with the waitlist per cluster as follows:

Cluster Hong Kong East Hong Kong West Kowloon Central Kowloon East Kowloon West New Territories East New Territories West
Waitlist
8,809
3,419
11,731
10,247
11,918
10,217
11,513

The waiting time for patients with cataract surgeries performed in the past 12 months (1 Apr 2024 – 31 Mar 2025) was as follows :

Cluster Hong Kong East Hong Kong West Kowloon Central Kowloon East Kowloon West New Territories East New Territories West
Number of Surgery Performed
3,140
3,232
6,488
3,163
2,413
4,890
3,624
Median Waiting Time* (month)
8
10
27
25
14
12
15
90th Percentile Waiting Time* (month)
31
12
32
30
52
29
51

(For reference only)
Date of Next Update: 31 July 2025

* The median and 90th percentile waiting time implies that half and 90% of the patients with surgeries performed could receive surgeries earlier than the indicated waiting time respectively.