London - Ophthalmology

Western UniversityLondon, OntarioCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 29 Oct 2025

From the 2026 match (R-1 2026). See the 2027 version

Positions (approx. quota): 2 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: Ophthalmology
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 0–25%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29126

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

Summary

The Western University Ophthalmology Residency Program is a comprehensive 5-year training program designed to produce outstanding clinicians who can provide high-level ophthalmology care across Canada. The program offers a thorough clinical experience with subspecialty exposure, academic curriculum, research opportunities, and personalized mentorship.

Training

Research

Residents must participate in clinical or basic science research, with support from a dedicated Research Director and Research Committee.

Training setting

Training occurs primarily at the Ivey Eye Institute at St. Joseph's Health Care in London, with additional rotations at University Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre, and Children's Hospital (Victoria Hospital).

Teaching approach

Competency-based medical education with graded responsibility, progressive independence, and emphasis on diagnostic skill acquisition and surgical ability development.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Tertiary care center
Community hospital

Focus areas

Comprehensive Ophthalmology
Subspecialty Training
Clinical Research

Patient populations

Ophthalmology patients
Pediatric ophthalmology patients
Neuro-ophthalmology patients

Highlights

Up to 6 months of electives
Annual Ophthalmology Research Day
Visiting professor program
Monthly Journal Club
Research opportunities for residents
Surgical wet labs
Operating microscope sessions

Strengths

High faculty to resident ratio (20 faculty to 6-8 residents)
Comprehensive patient exposure (120,000 patient visits annually)
Extensive surgical experience
Strong academic and research infrastructure

Enhanced skills

Academic career preparation
Supplementary research training
Clinical subspecialty training

By year

PGY-1

General rotationsTeaching clinics at London teaching hospitals1 year

PGY-2

Core Ophthalmology TrainingIvey Eye Institute1 year

PGY-3

Subspecialty RotationsVarious sites1 year

PGY-4

Advanced Subspecialty RotationsVarious sites1 year

PGY-5

Advanced Clinical TrainingVarious sites1 year

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

MSPR completion
Academic record
Reference letters
Personal letter
Interview performance
Research/publications
Leadership skills
Scholarly activities

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

0–25%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 22 Jan 2026

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-1	$73,367 / year
PGY-2	$79,670 / year
PGY-3	$85,564 / year
PGY-4	$92,701 / year
PGY-5	$98,567 / year

One provincial scale for Ontario, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 levels this program covers.

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

St. Joseph's Health Care
Ivey Eye Institute
University Hospital of the London Health Sciences Centre
Children's Hospital (Victoria Hospital)

Hospital facts

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

Unfilled positions in past years

No repeated vacancies in CaRMS’s lists of open positions, 2019–2026.

Positions at this site, all streams.

A position can go unfilled because of where the site is, because it is open to IMGs only or to another restricted stream, or because the quota changed late. It says nothing about the quality of the training. Verify with the CaRMS lists. Source: CaRMS’s lists of positions open after round 1 and after round 2, as read in October 2026 (latest: 2026 round 1 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab), 2026 round 2 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab)). A site’s numbers are shown when it had positions open after round 1 in at least 2 of 8 years or at least 3 in one year.

Contacts

Contacts weren't collected for the 2026 match.

The current program director and contacts are on the 2027 version of this program and on the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab).

Location

London, 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: −5.4 °C London, 10.3 km away
July average: 21.0 °C London, 10.3 km away
Snowfall: 152.3 cm a year Strathroy-Mullifarry, 31.2 km away
Days below −20 °C: 4.5 days a year London, 10.3 km away

People

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

Population: 422,324 people up 10.0% from 2016
Official languages: English only 90.9% · French only 0.1% · English and French 7.1% · neither 1.9% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 24.8% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 4.7% · non-permanent residents: 4.6%
Indigenous identity: 2.6% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 85.9% · public transit 6.4% · walking or cycling 5.5% · other 2.2% Average commute: 20.7 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: $76,500 before tax $68,500 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: London, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 423,369 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.109 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: 3.8% October 2025 survey, London, Ontario (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $55,434 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Ontario, population 500,000 and over, 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: 8.4% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, London, Ontario (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.8 points. A survey estimate.

Job outlook

Employment and Social Development Canada’s rating for the occupation in the economic region. It is not a count of jobs, and says nothing about CaRMS positions or your match.

Outlook, 2025–2027: Good The employment outlook will be Good for specialists in surgery (NOC 31101) in the London region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in surgery, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.

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.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), 2024 to 2033 projections).
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020).
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, 3-Year Employment Outlooks).
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 CdnMD 5 Oct 2026.