Hamilton - Family Medicine - Palliative Care

McMaster UniversityHamilton, OntarioCompetitive stream

Enhanced skills (FM/ES) match

Family medicine residents applying for a PGY-3 year (the "+1").

Contacts and 1 more link

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, FM/ES 2027 match, last approved 28 Jul 2026

Positions (approx. quota): Not stated on CaRMS page
Length: 1 year
Stream: Competitive
Discipline: Family Medicine - Palliative Care
Applications per year: 0–50
Applicants offered interviews: 26–50%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 34678

Bands are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS. They describe past cycles, not your odds.

Summary

This 12-month enhanced skills program trains physicians to provide primary and consultant level palliative care.
Training is based in the Greater Hamilton area with partner sites including Kitchener Waterloo, Niagara, Burlington and Brantford.

Training

Setting

Academic / tertiary hospital

Sites

6 teaching sites

Juravinski Hospital
Hamilton General Hospital
McMaster Children's Hospital

Show all 6

Juravinski Cancer Center
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
St. Peter's Hospital

Rural exposure

Not stated on CaRMS page

Research

Required · scholarly or quality-improvement project

Highlights

Sample schedule includes a PSMC and Integrative Oncology block at Juravinski Cancer Center.

By year

Not stated on CaRMS page

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single year.

Core Palliative Care (Juravinski Hospital)
Core Palliative Care (Hamilton General Hospital)
ELECTIVE
Pediatrics Elective (McMaster Children's Hospital)
PSMC and Integrative Oncology Block (Juravinski Cancer Center)
Community Palliative Care (Hamilton)
CORE PC (St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton)
Senior PC (Hamilton) (St. Peter's Hospital)
Senior PC (Hamilton) (St. Peter's Hospital)
Community Palliative Care (Brantford)
ELECTIVE

Selection

Application file components

CV
Electives
Examinations
Extra-curricular
Leadership skills
MSPRs
Personal letters
Reference documents
Research/Publications
Transcripts

Return of service

Required · IMGs only

Applications per year

0–50

Applicants offered interviews

26–50%

Interviews

Dates (FM/ES 2027 match)

23 Oct 2026

Mode

Virtual

Format

Panel

Programs can change interview dates. Confirm on carms.ca.

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 6 Jan 2025 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Contract expired, may change.

Annual salary by PGY level, Ontario
Level	Annual salary
PGY-3	$85,564 / year

One provincial scale for Ontario, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing PGY-3, the level FM/ES residents usually start at. Yours depends on your training so far.

Call

Call (provincial max): 7 nights in 28 in-house

The union agreement’s cap for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. Check with the program.

PARO agreement, 1 Jul 2023 to 30 Jun 2026. The term has ended; its terms continue until a new agreement is signed.

Teaching sites

Juravinski Hospital (Hamilton)
Hamilton General Hospital (Hamilton)
McMaster Children's Hospital (Hamilton)
Juravinski Cancer Center (Hamilton)
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (Hamilton)
St. Peter's Hospital (Hamilton)

Hospital facts

Hospital size and activity: Ontario doesn't publish this as open data.

Contacts

Grouped by the titles CaRMS lists. The program office (administrators and coordinators) usually answers questions about the program and applying; the director leads the training.

Program director

Dr. Alexandra Farag

CaRMS lists no email for the director.

Other contacts

Connie Shen
Senior Education Associate
shenk9@mcmaster.ca

Per CaRMS. Staff change during the cycle, so check the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab) before emailing.

Location

Hamilton, Ontario

About the city

Public statistics for the place named by this program’s location label, each with its source and reference period. They describe the place, not the program, and are not a ranking. Check each source before you rely on it.

Climate

Canadian Climate Normals, 1991–2020. Each value comes from the nearest weather station that reports it, not from the city itself.

January average: −3.1 °C Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away
July average: 21.9 °C Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away
Snowfall: 114.5 cm a year Toronto Pearson (Airport), 49.4 km away
Days below −20 °C: 0.7 days a year Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away

People

2021 Census. Figures are for the municipality of Hamilton, not the metropolitan area. Statistics Canada rounds counts, so small places are approximate.

Population: 569,353 people up 6.0% from 2016
Official languages: English only 92.3% · French only 0.1% · English and French 5.8% · neither 1.9% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 25.9% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 3.6% · non-permanent residents: 2.3%
Indigenous identity: 2.2% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 85.4% · public transit 7.4% · walking or cycling 5.2% · other 2.0% Average commute: 25.3 minutes. Shares are of people who commute.The way Canadians commute was altered in 2021 by the pandemic, with lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 and changes in how and where Canadians worked leading to 2.8 million fewer commuters, compared with five years earlier. Statistics Canada, The Daily, 30 Nov 2022(opens in a new tab)
Median household income: $86,000 before tax $75,500 after tax · income year 2020, in 2020 dollars

Rural and remote

This describes the place named by the program’s location label. Programs can train in several towns, so it is not every site.

Population centre: Hamilton, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 729,560 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.066 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.

Housing, cost and work

Each figure names the area it covers. A missing line means the source publishes nothing for this area.

Rental vacancy rate: 3.5% October 2025 survey, Hamilton, Ontario (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $59,504 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario, for two adults with two children. A modest, basic basket (the poverty line), not a resident’s budget. A size-class region is not the town itself.
Unemployment rate: 6.9% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Hamilton, Ontario (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.7 points. A survey estimate.

Sources and licences

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada. Adapted from Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Cartographic Boundary Files.
Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Rental Market Survey, October 2025 (vacancy rates), and Statistics Canada, Table 34-10-0130-01. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation or Statistics Canada of this product.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020).
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Index of Remoteness (17-26-0001), 2021. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0459-01 Labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area, three-month moving average, seasonally adjusted, reference month 2026-09. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 11-10-0066-01 Market Basket Measure (MBM) thresholds for the reference family by Market Basket Measure region, component and base year, 2025. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0011-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and population centres, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0002-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0057-01 Household income statistics by household type: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0173-01 Mother tongue by knowledge of official languages: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0266-01 Indigenous identity by Registered or Treaty Indian status: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0307-01 Immigrant status and period of immigration by place of birth: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0458-01 Main mode of commuting by commuting duration, time leaving for work, age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

Independent. Not affiliated with CaRMS or the program. Programs edit their descriptions during the match; confirm on carms.ca (opens in a new tab) before you apply. Data last updated on residency.fyi 8 Oct 2026.