{
  "id": "family-doctor-attachment",
  "category": "Health care access",
  "title": "Residents attached to a family doctor’s practice, Greater Victoria",
  "geography": "Greater Victoria local health area (411): Victoria, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Saanich and View Royal",
  "scope": "region",
  "levels": [
    "Provincial (health system)",
    "Island Health"
  ],
  "plain_question": "Out of every 100 residents, how many are attached to a family doctor or a family practice that sees them regularly?",
  "value": 72.7,
  "display_value": "72.7%",
  "unit": "of residents, 2022/23",
  "period": "2022 to 2023",
  "period_start": "2022-04-01",
  "period_end": "2023-03-31",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": null,
    "previous_value": null,
    "change_percent": null
  },
  "trend": "context",
  "direction_good": "up",
  "right_direction": "A higher share means more residents have a regular family doctor or practice.",
  "trend_basis": "72.7% of Greater Victoria residents were attached to a physician practice in 2022/23, against 77.5% across Island Health and 75.9% in B.C. (Island Health, February 2025 profile).",
  "since_text": "Island Health 77.5%, B.C. 75.9%.",
  "compare_text": "Island Health 77.5%, B.C. 75.9%",
  "caveats": [
    "The Ministry of Health counts a resident as attached when its records link them to a regular physician or physician practice. It is not a survey answer, so it differs from Statistics Canada’s “regular health care provider” figure.",
    "The local health area is Greater Victoria (411): Victoria, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Saanich and View Royal. The Western Communities and the Saanich Peninsula are separate local health areas.",
    "Island Health updates these profiles about once a year and overwrites the file; this page reads the edition dated February 2025. An earlier figure from an earlier edition is not published at the same address, so no change is shown.",
    "Island Health notes that the profiles are not intended for detailed planning or analysis.",
    "People waiting for a family doctor (the Province’s Health Connect Registry) are not published by area; that measure stays on “What is missing”."
  ],
  "charts": [],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "2022/23",
      "value": 72.7
    }
  ],
  "refresh_frequency": "Yearly (Island Health local health area profiles)",
  "source": {
    "name": "Island Health, Local Health Area Profile: Greater Victoria (411), February 2025",
    "url": "https://www.islandhealth.ca/node/1181",
    "dataset_url": "https://islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/communications/lha%20profiles/greater-victoria-lha-profile.pdf",
    "download_url": "https://islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/communications/lha%20profiles/greater-victoria-lha-profile.pdf",
    "locator": "Greater Victoria LHA Profile (February 2025), Health Status Summary, row “Population attached to physician (%)”, columns BC, Island Health and 411",
    "reads": "Population attached to physician (%), 2022/23: BC 75.9, Island Health 77.5, 411 72.7",
    "page_url": "https://islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/communications/lha%20profiles/greater-victoria-lha-profile.pdf#page=41",
    "page": 41
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution.",
    "url": "https://www.islandhealth.ca/node/1181",
    "open": false,
    "note": "Island Health publishes the profiles on its Local Health Area Profiles page and asks readers to contact its population health team about discrepancies; no separate terms of use are posted."
  },
  "verified_text": [
    "2022 - Population attached to physician (%) 75.9 77.5 72.7 74.8 80.9 80.2 80.2 77.9 79.5 79.3 83.3 75.0 80.9 82.6 81.3 70.7 2023",
    "(72.7%) of Greater Victoria residents are attached to a physician practice"
  ],
  "data_published": "2025-05-23",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-13T05:22:32Z",
  "attribution": "Source: Island Health, Local Health Area Profile: Greater Victoria (411), February 2025. Public document, used with attribution; not endorsed by the publisher.",
  "licence_type": "public",
  "source_tier": 1,
  "measure_kind": "service result",
  "better_measure": null,
  "status_rule": {
    "rule": "One rule for every measure: a change smaller than 5% of the earlier value, or smaller than the agency's own margin of error, is “About the same”; no change is calculated across a marked break in a series; homelessness estimates, prices, staffing and comparison pages are shown for context without a label.",
    "reason": "Shown for context, without a better or worse label.",
    "threshold_percent": 5.0
  },
  "changes": {
    "year": null,
    "five_year": null
  },
  "direction": {
    "type": "outcome",
    "rule": "Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series.",
    "key": "nolabel",
    "label": "No label yet",
    "vs": null,
    "cur": "2022 to 2023",
    "why": "There is no earlier figure in the same series to compare with yet. A direction label needs at least two comparable periods, so none is shown until a second one is published.",
    "long_why": "There is only one period so far."
  },
  "benchmark": {
    "rung": 5,
    "rung_name": "No target found",
    "as_of": "2026-11-12",
    "items": [
      {
        "kind": "related",
        "label": "Related target",
        "text": "Related target, not drawn: the Ministry of Health 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan aims for 78% of British Columbians to be attached to a family physician or nurse practitioner in 2026/27, rising to 79% in 2027/28 and 80% in 2028/29. It counts people in the Province’s attachment system for all of B.C., a different source and area from this profile figure, so it is not drawn and no gap is shown.",
        "area": "British Columbia",
        "source": {
          "title": "Ministry of Health 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan",
          "publisher": "Province of B.C.",
          "date": "February 2026",
          "url": "https://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2026/sp/pdf/ministry/hlth.pdf",
          "terms": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/home/copyright",
          "refresh": "Yearly, with the provincial budget (February)",
          "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
          "checked": "2026-11-12",
          "key": "moh_sp",
          "page": 8
        },
        "documents_checked": null
      }
    ],
    "drawn": [],
    "rule": "Highest rung found is shown; the site never sets a target. Methods, Targets."
  },
  "benchmarks": [
    {
      "rung": 2,
      "kind": "related",
      "label": "Related target, not drawn: the Ministry of Health 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan aims for 78% of British Columbians to be attached to a family physician or nurse practitioner in 2026/27, rising to 79% in 2027/28 and 80% in 2028/29. It counts people in the Province’s attachment system for all of B.C., a different source and area from this profile figure, so it is not drawn and no gap is shown.",
      "short": null,
      "document": "moh_sp",
      "page": 8,
      "area": "British Columbia",
      "fit": "text_only",
      "same_area": false,
      "related_reason": "Different unit, definition, period or area; written under the chart, not drawn.",
      "document_url": "https://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2026/sp/pdf/ministry/hlth.pdf",
      "applies_here": false,
      "same_measure": false
    }
  ],
  "highest_rung": null,
  "decided_by": [
    {
      "body": "BC",
      "name": "Province of B.C.",
      "decides": "Runs the Medical Services Plan through the Medical Services Commission, sets standards for health services and appoints Island Health’s board.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "mpa3",
          "label": "Medicare Protection Act, s. 3",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96286_01#section3"
        },
        {
          "key": "haa3",
          "label": "Health Authorities Act, s. 3",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96180_01#section3"
        },
        {
          "key": "haa4",
          "label": "Health Authorities Act, s. 4",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96180_01#section4"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "IH",
      "name": "Island Health",
      "decides": "Plans and runs health services in the region: which services, which facilities and the programs that deliver them.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "haa5",
          "label": "Health Authorities Act, s. 5",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96180_01#section5"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "CAN",
      "name": "Government of Canada and Parliament",
      "decides": "Pays the Canada Health Transfer to the Province, on the conditions set in the Canada Health Act.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "fpfaa",
          "label": "Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, Part V.1",
          "url": "https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/F-8/FullText.html"
        },
        {
          "key": "cha",
          "label": "Canada Health Act, s. 5 and 7",
          "url": "https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-6/FullText.html"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    }
  ],
  "main_decision_maker": "Province of B.C.",
  "label_1y": {
    "key": "nolabel",
    "label": "No label yet"
  },
  "label_long": null,
  "target_line": {
    "form": 5,
    "text": "Related target only",
    "target": null,
    "gap": null,
    "comparison": null,
    "applies_here": false,
    "note": null
  }
}