{
  "id": "scheduled-surgery-wait",
  "category": "Health care access",
  "title": "Typical wait for scheduled surgery, Island Health",
  "geography": "Island Health (all hospitals), with Royal Jubilee and Victoria General shown separately",
  "scope": "region",
  "levels": [
    "Provincial (health authority)"
  ],
  "plain_question": "Once a surgery is booked, how many weeks does the typical person wait?",
  "value": 7.1,
  "display_value": "7.1",
  "unit": "weeks (median wait for surgeries completed in the year)",
  "period": "Fiscal year 2025/26 (April 2025 to March 2026)",
  "period_start": "2025-04-01",
  "period_end": "2026-03-31",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": "Fiscal year 2024/25",
    "previous_value": 7.9,
    "change_percent": -10.1
  },
  "trend": "improving",
  "trend_basis": "7.1 weeks in 2025/26 compared with 7.9 weeks in 2024/25 (-10.1%). Island Health 90th percentile: 31.4 weeks (was 32.6).",
  "direction_good": "down",
  "right_direction": "A lower number means people wait fewer weeks between a surgery being booked and taking place.",
  "caveats": [
    "This is scheduled (elective) surgery only. It is not emergency department wait time, which is not yet published as open data (see the Methods page).",
    "The wait is the median for surgeries that were completed in the year: half of those patients waited less, half waited more. People still waiting are not in this number; see the waiting count in the detail.",
    "Island Health covers the whole island and part of the mainland coast, not only Greater Victoria. Royal Jubilee and Victoria General figures are shown separately below.",
    "The Ministry restates this dataset when reporting requirements change, so past years can be revised."
  ],
  "breakdown": [
    {
      "label": "Royal Jubilee Hospital",
      "value": 5.9,
      "display_value": "5.9 weeks",
      "previous_value": 7,
      "period": "Fiscal year 2025/26",
      "detail": "90% of people had surgery within 28.1 weeks; 3,976 people waiting at year end; 14,532 surgeries completed."
    },
    {
      "label": "Victoria General Hospital",
      "value": 7,
      "display_value": "7 weeks",
      "previous_value": 7.9,
      "period": "Fiscal year 2025/26",
      "detail": "90% of people had surgery within 35.1 weeks; 3,438 people waiting at year end; 8,131 surgeries completed."
    }
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "2017/18",
      "value": 8.3
    },
    {
      "period": "2018/19",
      "value": 8
    },
    {
      "period": "2019/20",
      "value": 7.9
    },
    {
      "period": "2020/21",
      "value": 7
    },
    {
      "period": "2021/22",
      "value": 6
    },
    {
      "period": "2022/23",
      "value": 7
    },
    {
      "period": "2023/24",
      "value": 7.3
    },
    {
      "period": "2024/25",
      "value": 7.9
    },
    {
      "period": "2025/26",
      "value": 7.1
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Ministry of Health, Government of British Columbia (BC Surgical Wait Times)",
    "url": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/accessing-health-care/surgical-wait-times",
    "dataset_url": "https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/bc-surgical-wait-times",
    "download_url": "https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/7c1bf2a8-96bb-4ad5-888d-a90672eb306e/resource/6cd508eb-7e31-4c86-b070-dc698131fa9a/download/2009_2026-annual-surgical_wait_times.xlsx"
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Open Government Licence - British Columbia",
    "url": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=A519A56BC2BF44E4A008B33FCF527F61"
  },
  "refresh_frequency": "Annually (quarterly interim files during the year)",
  "data_published": "2026-08-12",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-11T06:52:22Z"
}