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Vancouver - General Surgery

University of British ColumbiaVancouver, British ColumbiaCMG stream

At a glance

Approx. quota
8 positions
Length
5 years
Applications per year
51–200
Offered interviews
26–50%

CMG stream · open to Canadian medical graduates

Info session

details info sessions of this program

Wed 11 Nov 2026,5:30–7:00 pm PSTvia CANPREPP source (opens in a new tab)

Interviews

1 date, 4 Feb 2027Traditional (one on one/two on one); MMI or rotating station

Vancouver, 25 teaching sites

Program website(opens in a new tab)Instagram(opens in a new tab)X(opens in a new tab)CANPREPP profile(opens in a new tab)CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab)

What stands out about this program

  • Four-week PGY1 CRASH course covering trauma resuscitation, critical care, teaching, leadership and technical skills.

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • PGY2 Innovation Week protected from clinical duties for surgical research and innovation.

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • PGY4 RISE: protected time from clinical duties for leadership and career mentorship.

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • UBC General Surgery is a 5-year residency in which residents must rotate through hospitals around British Columbia.
  • Residents rotate on trauma, hepatobiliary, transplant, surgical oncology and colorectal services, at community hospitals, and on a formal endoscopy rotation.
  • PGY2 residents have a research block to prepare for research years, mainly through the Clinical Investigator Program.

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

Based on what the program says about itself.

  • You’re open to training at sites across a region, not at one hospital.
    Show the quote

    A truly distributed program, our residents have a province wide presence and must rotate through rotations around the province.

Not a ranking.

What training looks like

Setting
  • Mixed settings
  • Academic / tertiary hospital
  • Urban community
  • Regional community
Rural exposure
Not stated on CaRMS page
Research
Required · research project · protected time

By year

PGY-1
  • CRASH (Surgical Competencies in Resuscitation and Stabilization of Hospital Patients) coursefour-week
  • BST (Basic Surgical Techniques) course
PGY-2
  • research block
  • Innovation Week
PGY-4
  • RISE

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

  • trauma
  • hepatobiliary
  • transplant
  • surgical oncology
  • colorectal surgery
  • endoscopy rotation

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

Where you train

Vancouver, British Columbia: 25 teaching sites.

  • Vancouver General Hospital
  • St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver
  • BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver
  • UBC Hospital, Vancouver
  • BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver
  • Mount St. Joseph Hospital, Vancouver
  • Lion's Gate Hospital, North Vancouver (North Vancouver)
  • Richmond Hospital (Richmond)
  • qathet General Hospital, Powell River (Powell River · rural or distributed site)
  • Royal Columbian Hospital, New Westminster (New Westminster)
  • Burnaby General Hospital (Burnaby)
  • Surrey Memorial Hospital (Surrey)
Show all 25 sites
  • Abbotsford Regional Hospital & Cancer Centre (Abbotsford · rural or distributed site)
  • Victoria General Hospital, Royal Jubilee Hospital (Victoria · rural or distributed site)
  • Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (Nanaimo · rural or distributed site)
  • North Island Hospital, Campbell River (Campbell River · rural or distributed site)
  • East Kootney Regional Hospital, Cranbrook (Cranbrook · rural or distributed site)
  • Kelowna General Hospital (Kelowna · rural or distributed site)
  • Royal Inland Hospital, Kamloops (Kamloops · rural or distributed site)
  • Shuswap Lake General Hospital, Salmon Arm (Salmon Arm · rural or distributed site)
  • Vernon Jubilee Hospital (Vernon · rural or distributed site)
  • Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, Trail (Trail · rural or distributed site)
  • University Hospital of Northern BC, Prince George (Prince George · rural or distributed site)
  • GR Baker Memorial Hospital, Quesnel (Quesnel · rural or distributed site)
  • Mills Memorial Hospital, Terrace (Terrace · rural or distributed site)

Distributed across a region

Record systems at the listed sites: MEDITECH at 7 of 25, Oracle Health (Cerner) at 9, SaferCare at 1; no published record for 8.

Moving to a new system: Mills Memorial Hospital, Terrace (scheduled spring 2027).

Hospital facts

24 sites · public figures and clinical record systems where they are published

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. 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
CST Cerner, fully electronic record since Nov 2022 As of 31 Oct 2026. At Vancouver General Hospital, UBC Hospital, Vancouver.
Clinical record
CST Cerner, fully electronic record since Nov 2019 As of 31 Oct 2026. At St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, Mount St. Joseph Hospital, Vancouver.
Clinical record
MEDITECH Expanse, system named (how far it goes is not stated) As of 31 Oct 2026. At East Kootney Regional Hospital, Cranbrook, Kelowna General Hospital, Royal Inland Hospital, Kamloops, Shuswap Lake General Hospital, Salmon Arm, Vernon Jubilee Hospital, Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, Trail.

How to read the figures

  • Where one name covers several hospitals, each is shown on its own, A to Z, and the numbers are never added together.
  • Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26. All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
  • Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1. One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Vancouver General Hospital

Matched to Vancouver General Hospital in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
13,790
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
3,855

St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver

Matched to St. Paul's Hospital (Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
8,691
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,240

BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver

Clinical record
CST Cerner, fully electronic record since Feb 2022 As of 31 Oct 2026

Matched to BC Children's Hospital (Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
7,396
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,910
Show facts for 21 more sites

UBC Hospital, Vancouver

Matched to UBC Health Sciences Centre Hospital in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
7,983
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,043

Mount St. Joseph Hospital, Vancouver

Matched to Mount Saint Joseph Hospital (Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
15,711
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
4,233

Lion's Gate Hospital, North Vancouver

Clinical record
CST Cerner, fully electronic record since Apr 2018 As of 31 Oct 2026

Matched to Lions Gate Hospital (North Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
10,660
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,762

Richmond Hospital

Clinical record
CST Cerner, fully electronic record since Jun 2024 As of 31 Oct 2026

Matched to Richmond Hospital (Richmond) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
6,446
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,680

qathet General Hospital, Powell River

Matched to qathet General Hospital (Powell River) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
974
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
284

Royal Columbian Hospital, New Westminster

Clinical record
MEDITECH: Fraser Health electronic health record (Advance), fully electronic record since Sep 2024 As of 31 Oct 2026

Matched to Royal Columbian Hospital (New Westminster) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
4,798
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,447

Burnaby General Hospital

Matched to Burnaby Hospital (Burnaby) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
8,388
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,058

Surrey Memorial Hospital

Matched to Surrey Memorial Hospital (Surrey) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
11,911
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,849

Abbotsford Regional Hospital & Cancer Centre

Matched to Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre (Abbotsford) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
6,232
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,667

Victoria General Hospital, Royal Jubilee Hospital

Clinical record
IHealth (Cerner electronic health record), fully electronic record since 2021 As of 31 Oct 2026

This name covers 2 hospitals in the province’s lists.

Royal Jubilee Hospital (Victoria)
Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
14,532
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
3,973
Victoria General Hospital (Victoria)
Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
8,131
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,108

Nanaimo Regional General Hospital

Clinical record
IHealth (Cerner electronic health record), fully electronic record since 2016 As of 31 Oct 2026

Matched to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (Nanaimo) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
9,004
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,040

North Island Hospital, Campbell River

This name covers 2 hospitals in the province’s lists.

North Island Hospital Campbell River and District (Campbell River)
Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
2,628
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
664
North Island Hospital Comox Valley (Courtenay)
Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
7,417
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,923

East Kootney Regional Hospital, Cranbrook

Matched to East Kootenay Regional Hospital (Cranbrook) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
4,520
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,068

Kelowna General Hospital

Matched to Kelowna General Hospital (Kelowna) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
15,707
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
4,090

Royal Inland Hospital, Kamloops

Matched to Royal Inland Hospital (Kamloops) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
10,812
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
2,914

Shuswap Lake General Hospital, Salmon Arm

Matched to Shuswap Lake General Hospital (Salmon Arm) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
1,682
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
431

Vernon Jubilee Hospital

Matched to Vernon Jubilee Hospital (Vernon) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
4,704
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,249

Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, Trail

Matched to Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (Trail) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
2,497
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
640

University Hospital of Northern BC, Prince George

Matched to University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (Prince George) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
4,520
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
1,127

GR Baker Memorial Hospital, Quesnel

Matched to G.R. Baker Memorial Hospital (Quesnel) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
1,452
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
414

Mills Memorial Hospital, Terrace

Clinical record
SaferCare clinical information system, moving to a new system, scheduled spring 2027 As of 31 Oct 2026

Fraser Health's new electronic health record is live at 4 sites (Royal Columbian Hospital, Eagle Ridge Hospital, Fraser Canyon Hospital, Mission Memorial Hospital). Its other sites are still on its current clinical information system. As of 31 Oct 2026

Northern Health is rolling out SaferCare, its clinical information system, hospital by hospital (Fort St. James from 21 April 2026, Terrace in spring 2027). Electronic documentation and order entry at all its hospitals are still to come. As of 31 Oct 2026

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

Sources and licences

  • Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia.

About Vancouver

  • People

    662,248residents, 2021 Census

    Municipality of Vancouver

  • Housing

    3.7%rental vacancy rate

    October 2025 survey, Vancouver, British Columbia (census metropolitan area)

  • Winter and summer

    5.3 °CJanuary mean19.0 °CJuly mean

    1991–2020 normals, Vancouver (Harbour), 5.7 km away

  • Job outlook

    Goodfor the specialty here, 2025–2027

More about Vancouver (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
Not stated on CaRMS page. Check the provincial return-of-service rules.

Application file components as the program describes them.

Interviews and info sessions

Interview dates (2027 match)
4 Feb 2027
Format
  • Traditional (one on one/two on one)
  • MMI or rotating station

Info sessions

From the program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab), read 20 Oct 2026; a row tagged CANPREPP is on CANPREPP’s events calendar (read 24 Oct 2026), alone or as well. Dates and times are as the program wrote them; “your time” is worked out in your browser when your time zone differs. Programs add and change sessions.

Pay and call

Provincial scale, last updated 2 Sep 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab). Salaries from April 2027. One provincial scale for British Columbia, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 levels this program covers.

Annual salary by PGY level, British Columbia
LevelAnnual salary
PGY-1
$71,390 / year
PGY-2
$79,571 / year
PGY-3
$86,655 / year
PGY-4
$93,230 / year
PGY-5
$100,215 / year

How provincial pay and rent compare

Call

Call (provincial max)
1 in 4 in-house
Post-call rule (provincial)
Relieved within 2 hours of the call ending, or by 10:00 if earlier, when a resident on a 24-hour or longer shift could not get 6 uninterrupted hours of rest

The union agreement’s limits and rules for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. RDBC agreement, 1 Apr 2025 to 31 Mar 2029. Read as of 1 Oct 2026.

Benefits

13 lines as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024: Annual vacation, CMPA dues paid, Dental plan, and more
Annual vacation
4 weeks
CMPA dues paid
Yes. Mandatory
Dental plan
100% Premiums Paid
Educational leave
Yes
Extended health insurance
100% Premiums Paid
Life insurance
100% Premium Paid
Long-term disability insurance
Yes 100% Premiums Paid
Maternity leave
17 weeks, plus up to 78 weeks Parental Leave
Meal allowance
No
Provincial dues (% of salary)
1.5%
Provincial health insurance
100% Premiums Paid
Sick leave
Yes
Statutory holidays
2 x pay plus extra day with pay

Past matches

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

Positions at this site, all streams.

What this means

  • 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 or how heavy the workload is.
  • 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.

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)).

Year by year

2027 match

The 2027 match, one row per stream (scrolls sideways on narrow screens)
StreamPositionsLengthInterviewsWhat changed
CMG stream85 years1 date, 4 Feb 2027Traditional (one on one/two on one); MMI or rotating stationNothing noted

2026 match

The 2026 match, one row per stream (scrolls sideways on narrow screens)
StreamPositionsLengthInterviews
CMG stream85 years1 date, 5 Feb 2026
The 2026 page of the CMG stream: our summary of its CaRMS description
  • The UBC General Surgery Residency Program offers a comprehensive 5-year training experience across British Columbia, focusing on developing exceptional surgeons through innovative rotations, academic half-days, and a distributed training model.
  • The program emphasizes clinical excellence, research, and holistic surgical education across diverse clinical settings.
Research
Dedicated research blocks, Clinical Investigator Program, protected time for research and innovation, funding application preparation
Training setting
A distributed program across multiple hospitals in British Columbia, including urban and community hospital settings, providing residents exposure to diverse surgical environments and complex case mixes.
Teaching approach
Competency-based medical education with progressive independence, emphasizing clinical and technical excellence, research involvement, and holistic development across CanMEDS roles.
Enhanced skills
Not stated on CaRMS page
What the program looked at
  • Academic standing
  • Letters of reference
  • Personal letter
  • Team Dynamics Profile assessment
  • Interview performance

Positions, length and interviews as each match’s CaRMS pages stated them; what changed from our comparison of the two matches and our readings of the 2027 pages.

Contacts and links

Program directors

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

Program websiteWebsiteInstagramXCANPREPPCANPREPPThis program on CaRMS(opens in a new tab)

Videos and podcasts

From the program

Public podcast episodes and videos where the program presents itself. The short descriptions are ours; each link goes to the original.

These are public recordings, reviewed by hand and linked here, not endorsed. They may be out of date. Confirm with the program.

All videos, podcasts and discussions →

General Surgery elsewhere

Nearest to Vancouver

  • Calgary - General SurgeryUniversity of Calgary

    Calgary, AB · 673 km

    6 positions · CMG, IMG

  • Edmonton - General SurgeryUniversity of Alberta

    Edmonton, AB · 818 km

    7 positions · CMG

  • Saskatoon - General SurgeryUniversity of Saskatchewan

    Saskatoon, SK · 1,198 km

    4 positions · CMG

Source

The program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab) · 2027 match · last approved 27 Aug 2026 · not final until file review opens 26 November; as of 19 Oct 2026, re-checked every two weeks.

Accredited · CaRMS program ID 35260 · How these pages are made › · See the 2026 match under Year by year

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 24 Oct 2026.

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