Victoria indicatorsAll measures Homelessness and drugs
Wait for a substance use treatment bed
26.4 days, median
Ministry of Health target, median days to start bed-based treatment and recovery services (all of B.C.). Targets and comparisons
Down 14% in a year.
Source: B.C. Ministry of Health. We read it on Nov 12, 2026.
Over time
Median days from referral to a treatment and recovery bed, B.C.
2025/26 Days, by fiscal year
- 26.4 days
Ministry target
P provincial election: Oct 19, 2024
Targets and comparisons
Adopted target
Target met. 26.4 days against the target in force of 30.5 days for this period. At or under the cap reads Target met; over it reads Missed, or Just over target when the gap is 0.5% of the target or less.
Target: 30.5 days, set by the Province of B.C.. Ministry of Health 2025/26 Annual Service Plan Report.
Adopted target: the Ministry of Health set a target of 30.5 days for 2025/26 and reports that B.C. did better, at 26.4 days (2025/26 Annual Service Plan Report). Its 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan sets 30 days for 2026/27 and leaves later years to be decided. The Ministry notes that its targets were set on the earlier, unweighted method, while the actual figures since 2024/25 are weighted medians.
Source: Ministry of Health 2025/26 Annual Service Plan Report, Province of B.C., August 2026, page 17. Area: British Columbia. Updated: Yearly (August). Licence: Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.
Show the numbers as a table
| Period | British Columbia |
|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 26.4 |
| 2024/25 | 30.8 |
| 2023/24 | 31.0 |
| 2021/22 | 29.5 |
Who decides
Province of B.C. Sets provincial standards for health services and appoints Island Health’s board. Health Authorities Act, s. 3
Show the 1 other body and the laws
| Body | What it decides | Law or bylaw |
|---|---|---|
| Province of B.C. | Sets provincial standards for health services and appoints Island Health’s board. | Health Authorities Act, s. 3 Health Authorities Act, s. 4 |
| Island Health | Plans and runs health services in the region: which services, which facilities and the programs that deliver them. | Health Authorities Act, s. 5 |
Province: last general election October 19, 2024; next set for October 21, 2028 unless called earlier (Constitution Act, s. 23).
Each row says what a body decides and links to the law, order or bylaw that gives it that role. It does not say who caused a change: markets, households and other governments also move these numbers. Who decides what, for every measure · How we choose
What this number does not show
- Health authority-funded bed-based substance use treatment and recovery services. Withdrawal management (detox), stabilization and some provincial services are not included.
One more limit
- From 2024/25 the Ministry weights the median by the clients each provider serves; before, it was the median of the providers’ figures. 2024/25 by the old method: 27.8 days. Years on either side of that change are not compared (marked on the chart).
Not measured yet in homelessness and drugs: hidden homelessness. See all 18 gaps
In plain words
The median number of days between referral and the start of service for health authority-funded bed-based substance use treatment and recovery, as the Ministry of Health reports it for B.C.
How we decide “Target met”
26.4 days against the target in force of 30.5 days for this period. At or under the cap reads Target met; over it reads Missed, or Just over target when the gap is 0.5% of the target or less.
26.4 days in 2025/26 against 30.8 days in 2024/25, as the Ministry of Health reports them; the 2025/26 target was 30.5 days. Earlier years were measured differently: by the earlier method, 2024/25 was 27.8 days.
Target: Ministry of Health 2025/26 Annual Service Plan Report.
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. The rule.
All notes on this number
Why it matters. A shorter wait gets people into treatment while they are ready to start. No Island Health figure is published.
- Health authority-funded bed-based substance use treatment and recovery services. Withdrawal management (detox), stabilization and some provincial services are not included.
- From 2024/25 the Ministry weights the median by the clients each provider serves; before, it was the median of the providers’ figures. 2024/25 by the old method: 27.8 days. Years on either side of that change are not compared (marked on the chart).
- The 2021/22 baseline did not include Northern Health.
- No figure for Island Health or Greater Victoria is published; this is the B.C. figure.
Which places
Area: All of B.C.
The whole province of British Columbia.
Included
- All of British Columbia
Not included
- Where a Victoria-area figure is published, the page shows it next to the B.C. figure
How the agency describes it: British Columbia (health authority-funded beds).
How we got it
This number is published by the agency as shown; it is not calculated here. The script reads it from the agency’s own document and refuses to show it unless the expected text is found.
Licence and credits
This figure is public but not under an open licence: the agency publishes it for anyone to read, and it is shown here with credit and a link to the agency’s terms. About licences.
- Licence
- Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution. Agency’s terms of use
- Updated by agency
- Yearly (Ministry of Health Annual Service Plan Report, summer); latest release Aug 4, 2026
- Retrieved
- Nov 12, 2026, 10:30 PM B.C. time
Source: Ministry of Health, 2025/26 Annual Service Plan Report. Public document, used with attribution; not endorsed by the publisher.
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