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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").

At a glance

Approx. quota
Not stated on CaRMS page
Length
1 year
Applications per year
0–50
Offered interviews
26–50%

Competitive stream · open to Canadian and international medical graduates

Return of service: Required · IMGs only

Interviews

1 date, 23 Oct 2026virtual

Hamilton, 6 teaching sites

CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab)

What stands out about this program

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

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • 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.

The summary is written by CdnMD from the program’s CaRMS description.

What training looks like

Setting
  • Academic / tertiary hospital
Rural exposure
Not stated on CaRMS page
Research
Required · scholarly or quality-improvement project

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

✓ = the CaRMS page states it; – = not stated. From the program description and its rotation list.

Where you train

Hamilton, Ontario: 6 teaching sites.

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

Record systems at the listed sites: Epic at 4 of 6; no published record for 2.

Hospital facts

4 sites · clinical record systems where an official source states them

What official sources say for hospitals named above, each with its source and the date we read it. They describe the hospital, not the program. We match names to the sources by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Clinical record
Epic, fully electronic record since Jun 2022 As of 31 Oct 2026. At Juravinski Hospital, Hamilton General Hospital, McMaster Children's Hospital.

St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton

Clinical record
Epic (Dovetale), fully electronic record since Dec 2017 As of 31 Oct 2026

Verify with the official source: each source button opens the publisher’s own page.

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

About Hamilton

  • People

    569,353residents, 2021 Census

    Municipality of Hamilton

  • Housing

    3.5%rental vacancy rate

    October 2025 survey, Hamilton, Ontario (census metropolitan area)

  • Winter and summer

    −3.1 °CJanuary mean21.9 °CJuly mean

    1991–2020 normals, Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away

  • Job outlook

    not published for this specialty

More about Hamilton (its page: housing, getting around, weather, things to do, and every program that names it)

Sites as the program’s CaRMS page lists them. City figures are public statistics for the place named by the location; they describe the place, not the program.

How they choose

Application file components
  • CV
  • Electives
  • Examinations
  • Extra-curricular
  • Leadership skills
  • MSPRs
  • Personal letters
  • Reference documents
  • Research/Publications
  • Transcripts
Return of service
Required · IMGs only

Application file components as the program describes them.

Interviews and info sessions

Interview dates (FM/ES 2027 match)
23 Oct 2026
Format
Virtual
  • Panel

Interview dates and format are as the program wrote them.

Pay and call

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

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

How provincial pay and rent compare

Call

Call (provincial max)
7 nights in 28 in-house
Post-call rule (provincial)
No new patient responsibilities after 24 hours in-hospital, except what clinical handover needs
Max continuous duty (provincial)
24 hours in-hospital, then relieved after handover (up to 2 hours)

The union agreement’s limits and rules for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. PARO agreement, 1 Jul 2023 to 30 Jun 2026. The term has ended; its terms continue until a new agreement is signed. Read as of 1 Oct 2026.

Contacts and links

Program director

  • Dr. Alexandra Farag

CaRMS lists no email for the director.

Per CaRMS. Staff change during the cycle, so check the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab) before emailing. Site staff and other contacts are listed there too.

McMaster Enhanced Skills- Palliative Care(opens in a new tab)This program on CaRMS(opens in a new tab)

Family Medicine - Palliative Care elsewhere

Nearest to Hamilton

Source

The program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab) · FM/ES 2027 match · last approved 28 Jul 2026.

Accredited · CaRMS program ID 34678 · How these pages are made ›

The Applications per year and Offered interviews figures are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS: past cycles, not your odds.

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 8 Oct 2026.

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