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Vancouver - Ophthalmology

University of British ColumbiaVancouver, British ColumbiaCMG stream

At a glance

Approx. quota
3 positions
Length
5 years
Applications per year
51–200
Offered interviews
0–25%

CMG stream · open to Canadian medical graduates

Interviews

Not stated on CaRMS page

Vancouver, 7 teaching sites

Program website(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

  • Mandatory senior ophthalmology rotation in Fort St John, northern British Columbia.

    From “Training sites” on the CaRMS page

  • UBC Ophthalmology is a 5-year residency centred in Vancouver, based at the UBC Eye Care Centre on the Vancouver General Hospital campus.
  • Training also uses St. Paul's, Mount St. Joseph's and BC Children's hospitals, with Foundations assignments possible in New Westminster or Victoria and a mandatory senior rotation in Fort St John.
  • Residents must take part in research with scheduled time, take home call, and attend a 6-week TORIC course in Toronto.

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

    At UBC, we rely on the entire province for training. Therefore, the ability to complete rotations 'away'

Not a ranking.

What training looks like

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

By year

Not stated on CaRMS page

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

  • various adult and pediatric ophthalmology clinics (Transition to Discipline · 1 month)
  • internal medicine (Core)
  • emergency (Core)
  • neurology (Core)
  • dedication ophthalmology block (Core)
  • TORIC course (Core · 6 weeks · Toronto)
  • retina (Foundations)
  • cornea (Foundations)
  • glaucoma (Foundations)
  • oculoplastics (Foundations)
  • pediatrics ophthalmology (Foundations)
  • neuro-ophthalmology (Foundations)
  • uveitis (Foundations)
  • oncology (Foundations)
  • low vision (Foundations)
  • emergency clinics (Foundations)
  • dedicated OR blocks (Foundations)
  • mandatory ophthalmology rotation (senior years · Fort St John)

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

Where you train

Vancouver, British Columbia: 7 teaching sites.

  • Vancouver General Hospital & Eye Care Centre
  • British Columbia Children's Hospital
  • St. Paul's Hospital
  • Mount St. Joseph's Hospital
  • Royal Columbian Hospital (New Westminster · rural or distributed site)
  • Royal Jubilee Hospital (Victoria · rural or distributed site)
  • Fort St John (Fort St John · rural or distributed site)

Distributed across a region

Record systems at the listed sites: MEDITECH at 1 of 7, Oracle Health (Cerner) at 5; no published record for 1.

Hospital facts

6 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 2019 As of 31 Oct 2026. At St. Paul's Hospital, Mount St. Joseph's Hospital.

How to read the figures

  • 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 & Eye Care Centre

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

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

British Columbia Children's Hospital

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

St. Paul's Hospital

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
Show facts for 3 more sites

Mount St. Joseph's Hospital

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

Royal Columbian Hospital

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

Royal Jubilee Hospital

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

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26
14,532
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1
3,973

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

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
  • Other file component(s)
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)
Not stated on CaRMS page
Format
Virtual
  • Panel
  • MMI or rotating station

Info sessions

The 1 session listed for 2027 has passed.

10 Ophthalmology info sessions at other programsAll 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. 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 (as the program states it)
Home 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 stream35 yearsVirtualNothing noted

2026 match

The 2026 match, one row per stream (scrolls sideways on narrow screens)
StreamPositionsLengthInterviews
CMG stream35 years1 date, 5 Feb 2026
The 2026 page of the CMG stream: our summary of its CaRMS description
  • The UBC Ophthalmology Residency Program is a comprehensive 5-year training program designed to produce high-quality ophthalmologists with strong clinical, research, and teaching skills.
  • The program follows the Competence by Design (CBD) framework and provides residents with extensive clinical experiences across multiple hospital sites in British Columbia.
Research
Residents are required to actively participate in research projects, with dedicated research time and support from the Resident Research Director.
Training setting
Urban medical centers in Vancouver and Lower Mainland, with training across multiple hospital sites including academic and community hospitals.
Teaching approach
Competency-based medical education (CBME) with progressive skill development through four training stages: Transition to Discipline, Core, Foundations, and Transition to Practice.
Enhanced skills
Not stated on CaRMS page
What the program looked at
  • CV review
  • Elective evaluations
  • Medical Student Performance Record
  • Reference letters
  • Personal letter
  • 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 director

  • Dr. Bryon McKay

CaRMS lists no email for the director.

Program office

UBC Ophthalmology Residency Training Program Administrator

Write to the officeopth.education@ubc.ca

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

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

Videos and podcasts

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 →

Ophthalmology elsewhere

Nearest to Vancouver

  • Calgary - OphthalmologyUniversity of Calgary

    Calgary, AB · 673 km

    2 positions · CMG

  • Edmonton - OphthalmologyUniversity of Alberta

    Edmonton, AB · 818 km

    3 positions · CMG

  • Saskatoon - OphthalmologyUniversity of Saskatchewan

    Saskatoon, SK · 1,198 km

    2 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 35615 · 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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