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 December 2023, there were 69,759 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
8,275
3,222
13,526
9,704
12,855
9,522
12,655

The waiting time for patients with cataract surgeries performed in the past 12 months (1 Jan 2023 – 31 Dec 2023) 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
3,418
2,941
5,972
2,571
2,456
4,490
3,555
Median Waiting Time* (month)
20
12
30
10
13
11
13
90th Percentile Waiting Time* (month)
40
19
38
27
52
25
57

(For reference only)
Date of Next Update: 30 April 2024

* 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.