Ambulatory surgery has been recently gaining popularity owing to the increasing constraints on public-sector health care resources. Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most common day-case operations. This study was conducted to audit the early outcomes of 271 consecutive day-case inguinal hernia repairs performed at the Day Surgery Centre of the Tung Wah Hospital from 1 December 1995 through 31 December 1998. No patients died on the day of their surgery; in 265 (97.8%) cases, patients were discharged home on the day of their operation. Two patients required readmission because of fever and urinary retention, and the postoperative morbidity rate was approximately 5% (14/271 cases). Wound complication was the most common morbidity encountered and pain was the most common discomfort experienced by patients at home. These results suggest that ambulatory hernia repair can be performed safely in a day centre and yields excellent early outcomes.