Kai Tak Hospital is due to open in October in phases, beginning with family medicine and specialist outpatient services, particularly oncology. Its 2,400 beds are expected to allow most inpatient services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital to move there, reshaping how Kowloon patients receive hospital care.
Under the announced plan, Queen Elizabeth Hospital is set to stop providing 24-hour emergency services. Nearby Kwong Wah Hospital is expected to take on a larger emergency role: its accident and emergency department is now three times the size it was before the expansion and has gained 40 emergency beds.
Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau said Kai Tak’s accident and emergency department would also be three times the size of Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s existing department. Patients in some parts of Kowloon could reach the new hospital more quickly.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s site is planned to retain a clinical role after the inpatient move. The first phase of its conversion into an integrated ambulatory-care hospital is expected to begin in 2027, offering day procedures, diagnostic services, cataract surgery, CT and MRI imaging, and radiotherapy.
Lo said the converted facility could handle about 5,500 cataract cases a year, while the cataract waiting list had fallen from more than 70,000 to about 64,000 and the median wait had dropped from 37 months to 31 months.
The new day hospital is intended to serve patients from all six of Hong Kong’s public hospital clusters, rather than Kowloon alone. Lo cautioned that people with heart disease or other risks may not be suitable for day surgery; further services, including endoscopy and eye injections, could be added later.