Waiting Time for New Case Booking at
Psychiatry Specialist Out-patient Clinics



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.

In the past 12 months (01 October 2022 - 30 September 2023), there were 51,389 new case bookings in Psychiatry Specialist Out-patient Clinics, with waiting time as follows:
 
  New case bookings(2) Waiting Time
Number
Percentage
 
Hong Kong East
Hong Kong West
Kowloon Central
Kowloon East
Kowloon West
New Territories East
New Territories West
Urgent Case
2,535
5%
Median
1 week
1 week
Less than 1 week
1 week
Less than 1 week
1 week
1 week
Semi-urgent Case
9,710
19%
Median
3
weeks
4
weeks
4
weeks
4
weeks
4
weeks
4
weeks
4
weeks
Stable Case
39,138
76%
Median
22
weeks
41
weeks
22
weeks
57
weeks
29
weeks
69
weeks
41
weeks
Longest(1)
73
weeks
86
weeks
63
weeks
95
weeks
94
weeks
93
weeks
94
weeks

(For reference only)
Date of Next Update: 31 January 2024

Notes:
(1) The longest (90th percentile) waiting time implies that appointments are earlier than the indicated time in 90% of the new case bookings
(2) Excluding cases pending for triage
(3) With effect from 1 October 2022, the waiting time for new case booking at Specialist Out-patient Clinics has incorporated integrated clinics