Wait times · Hong Kong

The public queue runs long.
The private price runs higher than Seoul.

Hong Kong's public specialist queue can run into many months, and a comparable private work-up at home already costs more than flying to Seoul for one. This page compares the public-queue wait and the private cash price against a same-day program in Seoul. The methodology line under the comparison table names every source this page draws on and the date each was read. Individual figures carry their own notes where there is more to say.

Price my program See the report format
92 wks
Wait for an MRI (public)

Hospital Authority overall median for routine cases, provisional 2024-25 figures as at 31 December 2024. Priority 1 cases are 3 weeks, so the routine figure is the one a screening referral meets.

10–70 wks
Referral to first specialist appointment, median (public)

Stable cases, by specialty and cluster, 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 (Hospital Authority). The Authority publishes no HA-wide figure, so this is the span of its own table.

3 days
Same scan, scheduled in Seoul

Booked and completed inside one visit.

2–3 wks
Full written report

Same-day consult on preliminary findings; the full report follows in two to three weeks depending on the centre. KMI publishes about two weeks; Hanaro publishes no figure at all (measured 2026-07-28). You are not in Korea waiting for it. Reports are sent by email (or by post, at one centre) once ready, after you have already flown home, so a longer report does not mean a longer trip.

The methodology line under the comparison table names every source this page draws on and the date each was read. Individual figures carry their own notes where there is more to say.

The arithmetic

Hong Kong. Korea.

What you are comparing
HONG KONG VS KOREA
Hong Kong
PUBLIC WAIT / PRIVATE CASH PRICE
Korea
PARTNER CENTER, SCHEDULED VISIT
Wait for an MRI (public)
92 wks HA MEDIAN, ROUTINE CASES; 3 WKS IF TRIAGED PRIORITY 1
From 1 wk EARLIEST SLOT, NO REFERRAL STEP
Wait for a colonoscopy (public)
— THE HOSPITAL AUTHORITY STATES IT KEEPS NO COLONOSCOPY WAITING-TIME STATISTICS
From 1 wk EARLIEST SLOT, NO REFERRAL STEP
Referral to first specialist appointment, median (public)
10–70 wks STABLE CASES BY SPECIALTY AND CLUSTER; 10 AT THE FASTEST, 70 AT THE SLOWEST (HOSPITAL AUTHORITY)
—
Wait for a CT (public)
64 wks HA MEDIAN, ROUTINE CASES; 2 WKS IF PRIORITY 1
From 1 wk EARLIEST SLOT, BOOKED DIRECTLY, NO REFERRAL
One MRI region, self-pay
HK$3,500–9,000 PRIVATE; CENTRAL AND ADMIRALTY AT THE TOP OF THE BAND
≈ HK$1,771 PUBLISHED PARTNER-CENTRE PRICE, ₩319,000
Comprehensive screening, private self-pay
HK$28,000
≈ HK$5,551–6,106 COMPREHENSIVE TIER, PARTNER-CENTRE PUBLISHED PRICE
Everything in one visit
Sometimes PRIVATE HK CAN MATCH THIS, AT A HIGHER PRICE
Yes ONE SCHEDULED DAY, ONE BUILDING
HK$17,000lower out-of-pocket
1 tripinstead of a longer public queue
Price my program

Hospital Authority waiting times for CT, MRI and ultrasonography, Annex II to a Hong Kong Government reply tabled 2025-03-19, provisional 2024-25 figures as at 31 December 2024. HA overall median for routine cases: 92 weeks for an MRI and 64 weeks for a CT. Priority 1 cases are 3 weeks and 2 weeks respectively, so the routine figure is the one a screening referral meets. That annex covers imaging only. For colonoscopy the Hospital Authority has stated on the record that it does not keep waiting-time statistics for the examination in public hospitals (Hong Kong Government reply to LCQ8, 2018-07-04, https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201807/04/P2018070400454.htm), read 2026-08-11, so this site shows no figure rather than substituting a specialist-outpatient or public-private-partnership number, which measure different queues. The outpatient row is that specialist-outpatient figure, labelled for what it is: the Hospital Authority's Waiting Time for New Case Booking at Specialist Out-patient Clinics, for the period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 (https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sopc/dw_wait_ls_eng.pdf), read 2026-08-11. Stable case medians run from 10 weeks in Paediatrics in Kowloon East to 70 weeks in Ophthalmology in New Territories East; the Authority publishes no HA-wide aggregate, only per specialty and cluster, so the range is shown rather than an average of its own making. Urgent and semi-urgent cases are triaged far shorter, and a screening referral is normally stable. The 24 weeks this row carried until 2026-08-11 matched nothing the Authority publishes. The figure of 183 weeks that circulates for Hong Kong is not used here: it appears only in secondary sources, names no specialty or cluster, and exceeds every cell in the Authority's own table, the largest of which is 114 weeks. Korea side: a Korean partner centre's published non-covered (비급여) price list, the itemised document 의료법 제45조 requires a clinic to publish, read 2026-08-05. A brain MRI is ₩319,000 and a chest and rib CT is ₩131,000. Home side: self-pay prices as published by imaging providers and price guides in each market, read 2026-08-06. Converted at 1 USD = ₩1,413 and the same day's cross rates (open.er-api.com, 2026-08-19) (https://gia.info.gov.hk/general/202503/19/P2025031900355_489320_1_1742373431998.pdf; https://open.er-api.com/v6/latest/USD), measured 2026-08-06.

Next steps

What to check before you book.

How it works

Screen, scan, report: the five steps from first message to English report in hand.

Programs & pricing

Three fixed-price tiers, quoted in your currency before you book.

Will my doctor accept it?

What's in the report file, who signs it, and the honest limits of a result from a clinic your GP hasn't heard of.

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