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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The mobile application "BookHA" launched by the Hospital Authority (HA) in March this year has been enhanced to assist patients with referral letters issued by public hospitals and clinics, accounting for 70 per cent of referrals.
Beginning in March this year, most of the referral letters issued by the HA carry a 2D barcode which can be scanned with the upgraded function of the app, saving the need for taking photographs of the referral letters page by page.
"In the first three months, 371 patients have successfully made an appointment in their chosen Specialist Out-patient Clinic (SOPC) using the app. The operation for SOPCs to triage and process the requests has been smooth during the period and we are able to shorten the notification time of routine cases from 21 days to 14 days from now on," the HA spokesman said.
"We are delighted to see that over 60 per cent of the applications have been submitted outside office hours and over 20 per cent during weekends, proving the convenience of using the mobile app for SOPC booking anytime and anywhere."
Patients are also reminded that referral letters from registered doctors, private or public, are required for making new case bookings at public SOPCs.
Among some 700 bookings submitted via the mobile app in the first three months, 335 cases could not be processed. "While 151 have requested to book appointments in specialties that are not yet available for mobile app booking, 58 applications have been submitted without a valid referral letter," the spokesman said.
In view of the large number of attempts to make bookings in specialties other than gynaecology, the HA will expedite the logistical arrangements in different specialties and roll out the mobile app booking arrangement to at least three more specialties this September.
"There are around 60 000 new case bookings in gynaecology each year and the extension will likely cover another 250 000 more new case bookings in the respective specialties."
"BookHA" can be downloaded free of charge from the Apple App Store (supports iOS version 7.0 or above) or Google Play (supports Android version 4.1 or above) and it is available in traditional Chinese and English.
Ends/Monday, June 27, 2016
Issued at HKT 11:26
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