Vancouver - Internal Medicine

University of British ColumbiaVancouver, British ColumbiaCompetitive RoS stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 25 Aug 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 3 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: Competitive RoS
Discipline: Internal Medicine
Applications per year: 401–600
Applicants offered interviews: 51–75%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29517

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

Summary

The UBC Internal Medicine Residency Program is a fully integrated provincial program training excellent general internists across British Columbia. Residents receive comprehensive training through experiential learning, preparing them for general internal medicine practice or subspecialty fellowship training.

Training

Research

Three blocks of research time during core three years, with annual Resident Research Day and support for conference presentations.

Training setting

Distributed provincial program with primary training sites in Vancouver, including St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital, Royal Columbian Hospital, and Surrey Memorial Hospital. Additional training sites in Prince George, Victoria, and Kelowna.

Teaching approach

Experiential learning through graduated patient care responsibilities, emphasizing competency-based medical education with progressive independence and a focus on CanMEDS 2015 goals.

Setting types

Academic medical centers
Community hospitals
Rural clinics
Tertiary care centers

Focus areas

General Internal Medicine
Subspecialty Training
Community Medicine
Rural Medicine
Global Health

Patient populations

Urban patients
Rural patients
Community medicine patients
Critically ill patients
Global health patients

Highlights

Two-week Boot Camp for incoming PGY1s
One week of annual conference leave
Associate Membership to American College of Physicians
Annual Resident Research Day
Global Health Elective
Annual Resident Retreat
Additional conference presentation funding
OSCEs
Simulation/Ultrasound Curriculum
Resident wellness initiatives
Social Medicine curriculum
Rwanda Global Health Project

Strengths

Large number of skilled clinical teachers
Wide variety of clinical experiences
Protected academic half-day time
Distributed training sites across province
Diverse patient population exposure
Comprehensive research opportunities

Enhanced skills

Subspecialty training opportunities
Global health electives
Social medicine curriculum

By year

PGY-1

Clinical Teaching UnitCurrent sites for PGY1s are Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital & Royal Columbian Hospital20 weeks
Subspecialty ElectiveMajority of electives are available through the Department with most of them available at the Lower Mainland.20 weeks
Boot CampCurrent site is Vancouver General Hospital for 2-week Boot Camp curriculum, and Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, Royal Columbian Hospital & Surrey Memorial Hospital for 2 week ICU / CCU / CTU service.4 Weeks
ICUCurrent sites are Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, Royal Columbian Hospital & Surrey Memorial Hospital4 weeks
CCUCurrent sites are Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria4 weeks

PGY-2

Subspecialty ElectivesSubspecialty Electives are available throughout the Lower Mainland. We are in the process of developing further subspecialty rotations throughout the Province.24 weeks
Clinical Teaching UnitYou may be assigned to a Sr CTU rotation in Vancouver General or St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, Royal Columbian in New Westminster, Prince George, Victoria, or Kelowna16 weeks
CCUTwo months of CCU may be spent at Vancouver General, St. Paul's Hospital, or Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria8 weeks
CommunityCommunity rotations are offered in a wide variety of urban and rural areas throughout the province4 weeks

PGY-3

Subspecialty ElectivesSubspecialty or community GIM electives are available in multiple sites around the province24 weeks
Clinical Teaching UnitYou may be assigned to a Sr CTU rotation within Vancouver at Vancouver General, St. Paul's Hospital, Royal Columbian in New Westminster, Prince George, Kelowna, or Victoria12 weeks
ICUCurrently, we have 4 ICU rotation sites - Vancouver General, St. Paul's Hospital, Royal Columbian in New Westminster, and Surrey Memorial Hospital8 weeks
Ambulatory MedicineAll senior residents are required to complete 2 months of Ambulatory GIM. Clinic sites are at Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, Prince George Regional Hospital, Lionsgate Hospital, Victoria General Hospital and Kelowna General Hospital.8 weeks

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

CV review
Electives review
Personal letter
Reference letters
Interview performance
Collaboration skills
Communication skills
Professionalism

Applications per year

401–600

Applicants offered interviews

51–75%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 9 Jan 2026

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

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 2 Sep 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Salaries from April 2027.

Annual salary by PGY level, British Columbia
Level	Annual 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

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.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual vacation: 4 weeks
CMPA dues paid: Yes. Mandatory
Dental plan: 100% Premiums Paid
Educational leave: Yes
Extended health insurance: 100% Premiums Paid
Frequency of calls: 1 in 4 onsite/1 in 3 offsite
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

Call

Call (provincial max): 1 in 4 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.

RDBC agreement, 1 Apr 2025 to 31 Mar 2029.

Hospital facts

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. They describe the hospital, not the program, and are not a ranking. We match names to the province’s lists by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Vancouver General Hospital

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 13,790 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: 3,855 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

St. Paul's Hospital

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 8,691 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: 2,240 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Royal Columbian Hospital

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 4,798 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: 1,447 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Show facts for 4 more sites

Surrey Memorial Hospital

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 11,911 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: 2,849 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Victoria General Hospital

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 8,131 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: 2,108 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Kelowna General Hospital

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 15,707 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: 4,090 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Lionsgate Hospital

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

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 10,660 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: 2,762 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Sources and licences

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

Unfilled positions in past years

Open after round 1 in 3 of 8 years (2019–2026); still open after round 2 in 1 of 9 years.

Positions at this site, all streams. Site as CaRMS lists it: Vancouver.

Positions at this site, all streams, still open after round 1 and after round 2, by year. Each count above zero links to the CaRMS list page it comes from.
Year	Open after round 1	Open after round 2
2018	not available	1 position open after round 2 in 2018, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)
2019	0	0
2020	2 positions open after round 1 in 2020, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2021	0	0
2022	0	0
2023	0	0
2024	2 positions open after round 1 in 2024, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2025	3 positions open after round 1 in 2025, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2026	0	0

CaRMS’s first-round list for 2018 was not found, so round 1 is counted over 8 years and round 2 over 9.

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

Vancouver, British Columbia

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: 5.3 °C Vancouver (Harbour), 5.7 km away
July average: 19.0 °C Vancouver (Harbour), 5.7 km away
Snowfall: 36.6 cm a year Vancouver International (Airport), 7.6 km away
Days below −20 °C: 0.0 days a year Vancouver (Harbour), 5.7 km away

People

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

Population: 662,248 people up 4.9% from 2016
Official languages: English only 84.8% · French only 0.1% · English and French 9.3% · neither 5.8% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 42.2% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 6.4% · non-permanent residents: 6.6%
Indigenous identity: 2.3% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 56.2% · public transit 22.9% · walking or cycling 18.4% · other 2.6% 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: $82,000 before tax $72,000 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: Vancouver, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 2,426,160 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.062 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: 3.7% October 2025 survey, Vancouver, British Columbia (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $64,351 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Vancouver, British Columbia, 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: 6.5% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Vancouver, British Columbia (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.4 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: Moderate The employment outlook will be Moderate for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (NOC 31100) in the Lower Mainland - Southwest region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.