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 April 2024 - 31 March 2025), there were 52,509 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
2,191
4%
Median
1 week
1 week
Less than 1 week
1 week
Less than 1 week
1 week
Less than 1 week
Semi-urgent Case
9,137
17%
Median
3
weeks
3
weeks
3
weeks
3
weeks
2
weeks
4
weeks
2
weeks
Stable Case
41,174
78%
Median
35
weeks
42
weeks
22
weeks
43
weeks
23
weeks
77
weeks
41
weeks
Longest(1)
78
weeks
89
weeks
88
weeks
84
weeks
91
weeks
101
weeks
82
weeks

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

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