The Hospital Authority's HA Go app will soon have a new feature that will act as a digital guide for patients on the day of their appointments.

The "Clinic Companion" function, is scheduled to launch by the third quarter of 2026, providing patients and their relatives a detailed, step-by-step schedule for their visit, from registration to consultation.

Joyce Chan, the Hospital Authority's chief manager of health informatics, said the feature is designed to create a smoother patient experience.

"For example, on the day of appointment, I may need to register and pay, and then go to take some x-rays or some vital measurements, and then wait [in] some area before I'm called for the appointment," she said.

"We will display all these steps [through the] HA Go Clinic Companion with some audio [instructions] so that patients can easily grasp what they are going to do on that day of visit."

To ensure the app is accessible to all users, she said the feature will include text-to-speech audio support specifically designed to assist elderly and visually impaired users.

The announcement comes as the HA Go app continues to see widespread adoption.

As of the third quarter of this year, the app has recorded over 4.12 million downloads, boasting more than 3.25 million active users, of which over 370,000 are registered carers.

Chan said the app already offers significant functionality for carers, who can link their family members' accounts to assist with appointment scheduling, outpatient registration, and payment.

"All the carers can view the appointments, and also can make the appointments for their relatives, and also they will receive any notification before the appointments, and also after the consultation," she said.

"The medication record can also be viewed in the HA Go, and the most important is that when we need to work in parallel, the relatives can help them to register and pay before the appointment, so that the relatives don't need to go up and down in the clinics."

Carers can also check a patient's surgical status and admission or discharge conditions through the app.

This function will be expanded in the first quarter of 2026, when carers will also be able to view the status of their family members' endoscopy examinations.