A&E Wait Times (Hospital Authority)

Source

Hospital Authority (HA)

• Department URL: https://www.ha.org.hk/
• API Endpoint: https://www.ha.org.hk/opendata/aed/aedwtdata2-en.json
• API Docs: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_visitor_index.asp?Content_ID=236325

Format

JSON Updated every ~15 minutes. No API key. CORS-enabled.

~15 min

Update Interval

43

A&E Departments

Free

No Auth

Schema / Fields

Field	Type	Example	Description
hospName	string	"Queen Mary Hospital"	Hospital name
topWait	string	"Around 3 hours"	Wait time for non-urgent cases
hospNameEN	string	"Queen Mary Hospital"	English hospital name (alias)
lastUpdate	string	"2024-01-15 08:30"	Last data update time

Wait Time Interpretation for Demand Proxy

Wait Category	Implied District Load
< 1 hour	Low district activity
1–3 hours	Normal population density
> 3 hours	High population activity / event

Example API Call

curl "https://www.ha.org.hk/opendata/aed/aedwtdata2-en.json" \
  | jq '.waitTime[] | {name: .hospName, wait: .topWait}'

Example Response

{
  "waitTime": [
    {
      "hospName": "Queen Mary Hospital",
      "topWait": "Around 2 hours",
      "hospNameEN": "Queen Mary Hospital",
      "lastUpdate": "2024-01-15 08:30"
    },
    {
      "hospName": "Ruttonjee Hospital",
      "topWait": "Around 1 hour",
      "hospNameEN": "Ruttonjee Hospital",
      "lastUpdate": "2024-01-15 08:30"
    }
  ]
}

Hospital-to-District Mapping (relevant hospitals)

Hospital	District Served
Queen Mary Hospital	Central & Western, Southern
Ruttonjee Hospital	Wan Chai
Pamela Youde Nethersole	Eastern
Queen Elizabeth Hospital	Yau Tsim Mong

Used By

Model	How
Population Density Proxy	Longer A&E waits correlate with peak population activity periods
Demand Validation	Cross-validates peak hour assumptions with healthcare system load

Notes / Gotchas

Caution

A&E wait times are a weak proxy for population density — they reflect healthcare utilization patterns more than retail foot traffic. Use as a secondary signal, not primary input.

• Wait times spike during flu season (winter) and may not reflect normal population patterns
• Queen Mary Hospital (Pok Fu Lam) serves Central & Western — it’s the closest A&E reference point for Sheung Wan
• Holiday periods show different patterns — A&E wait often drops as routine illness is suppressed
• The API returns Hong Kong-wide data; filter by hospital name to get district-relevant readings