The United Kingdom has seen a significant increase in the number of general practitioners (GPs) over the past two decades, reaching nearly 54,000 in 2023. This figure represents a slight decrease from the previous year, which marked the highest number of GPs in the country since 2000. Gender dynamics in general practice A notable trend in the UK's GP workforce is the growing representation of female doctors. In NHS England, female GPs outnumbered their male counterparts, with over 20,000 female GPs compared to approximately 17,800 male GPs as of December 2024. This shift is not limited to England, as Scotland and Wales have also seen a rise in female GPs. In Scotland, there were about 3,200 female GPs compared to 1,900 male GPs in 2023, while Wales reported 1,334 female GPs and 996 male GPs in 2024. Comparison with other European countries While the UK has made strides in increasing its GP workforce, it still ranks third in Europe in terms of the number of practicing GPs. France leads with 65,469 GPs, followed by Germany with 60,601 in 2021. It's worth noting that the UK experienced a spike in GP numbers in 2020, likely due to emergency measures implemented during the early stages of the pandemic, including the introduction of a temporary emergency register and earlier registration of graduates.

This statistic displays the annual number of NHS GP practices in the United Kingdom from 2008 to 2017. In 2017 there were 9,085 GP practices in operation in the United Kingdom, the lowest number of practices in the provided time interval. Note: the NHS now publishes data for each country separately. See the number of GP practice in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

In 2024, over 80 thousand doctors were on the GP register in the United Kingdom. Since 2006, the number of general practitioners (GP) has been increasing. In 2020, the number of GPs spiked in the UK. Emergency measures taken in the early stages of the pandemic largely explain this trend, such as the introduction of a temporary emergency register and the earlier registration of graduates. A similar spike was seen among specialist doctors.

The General Practice Workforce series of Official Statistics presents a snapshot of the primary care general practice workforce. A snapshot statistic relates to the situation at a specific date, which for these workforce statistics is now the last calendar day each month. This monthly snapshot reflects the general practice workforce at 31 January 2025. These statistics present full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount figures by four staff groups, (GPs, Nurses, Direct Patient Care (DPC) and administrative staff), with breakdowns of individual job roles within these high-level groups. For the purposes of NHS workforce statistics, we define full-time working to be 37.5 hours per week. Full-time equivalent is a standardised measure of the workload of an employed person. Using FTE, we can convert part-time and additional working hours into an equivalent number of full-time staff. For example, an individual working 37.5 hours would be classed as 1.0 FTE while a colleague working 30 hours would be 0.8 FTE. The term “headcount” relates to distinct individuals, and as the same person may hold more than one role, care should be taken when interpreting headcount figures. Please refer to the Using this Publication section for information and guidance about the contents of this publication and how it can and cannot be used. England-level time series figures for all job roles are available in the Excel bulletin tables back to September 2015 when this series of Official Statistics began. The Excel file also includes Sub-ICB Location-level FTE and headcount breakdowns for the current reporting period. CSVs containing practice-level summaries and Sub-ICB Location-level counts of individuals are also available. Please refer to the Publication content, analysis, and release schedule in the Using this publication section for more details of what’s available. We are continually working to improve our publications to ensure their contents are as useful and relevant as possible for our users. We welcome feedback from all users to PrimaryCareWorkforce@nhs.net.

2013 was the year in which there were more female GPs in England than male primary care physicians, for the first time. The number of female GPs have steadily increased in the recorded time period, while male GP numbers have dropped before increasing slightly again. As of September 2024, there were over 28 thousand female GPs in NHS England, compared to over 20 thousand male GPs. That year, there were 48,417 GPs in the primary care workforce of England.

This publications is one of three that make up the NHS Staff 1997 - 2007 publication. The other two are: Non-Medical staff 1997 - 2007 Medical and Dental staff 1997 - 2007 You can access both of these sections and an overview of the whole publication via the links. Summary The general practice census is collected each year and records numbers and details of GPs in England along with information on their practices, staff, patients and the services they provide. General Practice staff, 30 September 2007 - Detailed Results The detailed results contain further data tables for September 2007 for England, by Strategic Health Authority area and selected statistics by primary care trust.

As of December 2024, there were 6,277 general practices in operation in England, the lowest number of practices in the provided time interval. With decreasing number of GP practices, the number of patients per practice in England is also increasing, furthering the strain and pressure in general practice. Note: Instead of the total number of GP surgeries in the UK, the NHS now publishes data for each country separately. See the number of GP practice in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Forecast: Share of Practising General Practitioners in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

In 2025, out of the 395 thousand registered doctors in the United Kingdom, 202 thousand were men and 193 thousand were women. There was a more pronounced gender gap among specialist doctors in the UK, with 69 thousand men to nearly 44 thousand women qualified on the specialist register. Although on the GP register, women outnumber men with over 45 thousand female GPs to nearly 35 thousand male GPs. Gender distribution of UK doctors by age While there are more male doctors than female doctors in total, the gender distribution of doctors in the UK looks different depending on the age group. Female doctors outnumber their male counterpart in all age groups under 45 years old. Therefore, as more doctors retire, the proportion of female doctors will increase. Worldwide make-up of doctors in the UK Although the majority of medical practitioners in the UK received their medical qualification from within the UK, there is still a significant number of doctors who graduated outside the UK. As of 2024, some 10 percent of registered doctors in the UK are from the European Economic Area (EEA) while a further third are international medical graduates (IMG) indicating the reliance of the NHS on immigration to support the organization’s workforce.

The Organisation Data Service (ODS) is provided by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). It is responsible for the publication of all organisation and practitioner codes and national policy and standards with regard to the majority of organisation codes, and encompasses the functionality and services previously provided by the National Administrative Codes Service (NACS).

These code standards form part of the NHS data standards. The HSCIC is also responsible for the day-to-day operation of the ODS and for its overall development.

Data for General Medical Practices, General Medical Practitioners, Prescribing Cost Centres and Dispensaries are supplied by the NHS Prescription Services and are used to facilitate their remit to remunerate dispensing contractors and provide the NHS with financial, prescribing and drug information. Users need to be aware of a number of characteristics of the data:

• The GP practices file contains all prescribing cost centres as opposed to solely GP practices. Those that offer Out of Hours services, operate as Walk-In Centres or are situated within a prison are identified with a type code in field 26

• GPs may have more than one identifier within the file – one for each practice they prescribe from. Note that the practice code is supplied in field 15 of the practitioner file.

• Some codes do not identify a real individual, but exist to track prescribing activity of GPs working temporarily; i.e. a ‘bucket’ code assigned to a practice, for ad-hoc use by locums.

Some key consequences include:

• The codes are not unique identifiers for GPs. They are more accurately described as identifying prescribing cost centres, and their relationship with a location (GP practice).

• The data does not provide an accurate depiction of the number of GPs practicing within the UK.

Further information relating to the contents and usage of each file can be found on the further information link, or from systems.hscic.gov.uk/data/ods.

Background The nature of primary care provision is changing. GPs and other staff providing primary care are no longer based solely in general practices but may work in a range of other “settings”, for example providing extended hours, GP streaming in Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments, and Out-of-Hours services. There is an increasing need to understand the different ways in which GPs and their colleagues are providing primary care services. This is a complicated and ever-changing area. Most GPs work in general practices. Information about GPs and other practice-based staff is provided directly to NHS Digital on a quarterly basis by the GP practices which submit record-level data via the National Workforce Reporting System (NWRS). Information about these individuals and their associated workforce are published in General Practice Workforce statistics (https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-services). Similarly, information about GPs and other healthcare professionals directly employed by hospital trusts should be captured and included in NHS Workforce Statistics (https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics). Additional work is required to identify which parts, if any, of this activity can reasonably be classified as primary care provision. In addition, where available, details of individuals providing NHS funded care in the independent sector are captured and reported in NHS Digital’s Independent Healthcare Provider Workforce Statistics (https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/independent-healthcare-provider-workforce-statistics). However, there remains an uncertain number of GPs and other healthcare professionals that are providing patient care in these alternative settings and whose information, including details of their working hours, is not collected. As understanding the entirety of the healthcare workforce, both NHS and independent sector, is crucial to meeting the needs of patients and vital for workforce planning, we have been working to better understand the nature of healthcare provision, and in particular, the scale and extent of GP provision outside the more traditional settings. The number of service providers in these alternative settings – which are not necessarily NHS organisations – is large and services are commissioned differently in each CCG making it difficult to identify GPs and to collect accurate and complete workforce data. We are working closely with key stakeholders including Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement and Health Education England to explore the best way to collect more accurate and complete data for this part of the GP workforce. This is likely to include reviewing whether sufficient improvements could be made to this quarterly collection to enhance the data quality, as well as considering whether it would be feasible, affordable or preferable to collect record-level data directly from providers. These are new and experimental statistics which are under development. We welcome feedback from users to help us evaluate their suitability and quality. Please send any comments to PrimaryCareWorkforce@nhs.net including “GPs in Alternative Settings” in the subject line. Your feedback about these experimental statistics will help us evaluate their usefulness and inform our future plans. While the experimental statistics designation should not be taken to indicate that the statistics are of poor quality, there are nonetheless a number of data quality considerations that affect the levels of confidence that may be bestowed upon the figures and users are advised to consult the Data Quality section of this release.

How the number of patients per doctor and nurse at GP practices in England has changed over time, and how it differs across age, region and deprivation.

According to a survey of general practitioners in the UK in April 2020, items of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as facemasks and eye protection experienced some shortages during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Almost 19 percent of GPs in contact with possible and confirmed coronavirus patients reported no supply at all of eye protection, with a further 18 percent were experiencing shortages of eye protection. Additionally, there was a shortage of fluid-repellent facemasks for around 17 percent of GPs. Shortages of PPE have also been revealed by doctors working in high-risk areas such as intensive care, and for hospital doctors who have contact with coronavirus patients.

The latest number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

As of December 2024, the majority of GPs in England fell in the age group of 35 to 39 years old. Meanwhile, some three thousand doctors were under 30 years old and over one thousand GPs were aged 65 years and older.

The Statement of Fitness for Work (the Med3 form or 'fit note') was introduced in April 2010 across England, Wales and Scotland. It enables healthcare professionals to give advice to their patients about the impact of their health condition on their fitness for work and is used to provide medical evidence for employers or to support a claim to health-related benefits through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). A fit note is issued after the first seven days of sickness absence (when patients can self-certify) if the healthcare professional assesses that the patient’s health affects their fitness for work. The healthcare professional can decide the patient is 'unfit for work' or 'may be fit for work subject to the following advice...' with accompanying notes on suggested adjustments or adaptations to the job role or workplace. In 2012, DWP funded a project to provide general practice's with the ability to produce computer-generated fit notes (eMed3) and this included the capability to collect the aggregated data generated. Fit notes are issued to patients by doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and pharmacists following an assessment of their fitness for work. While they can be written by hand, most fit notes provided by general practice are now computer-generated. This quarterly statistical publication is produced by NHS England in collaboration with The Work and Health Unit, jointly sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health. It presents data on electronic fit notes issued in general practices in England for a given period. This is a ‘cumulative’ data collection. Weekly data collected will continue to be added to existing data. All data for all reporting periods is updated in each quarterly publication. From April 2019 all publications will contain data from practices who have TPP as their system supplier (which was not previously available), and accounts for one third of practices in England, consequently publications from this date may not be comparable to previous publications. All GP practices are mapped using current NHS geographies and recent changes may have resulted in a small number of practices not being mapped historically. These are shown as 'Unallocated' but are included in the England total. NHS England will publish data on a quarterly basis in October, January, April and July.

In 2021, there were over 65 thousand general practitioners (GP) practicing in France, the highest number recorded in Europe, followed by Germany with approximately 61 thousand GPs and the Turkey with 60 thousand.

Visiting the doctor

In 2018, a survey of French individuals revealed that 83 percent of respondents consult with a physician at least once a year. Furthermore, 46 percent of those will see their doctor three times or more in a year. In Great Britain, the share of respondents who visit a physician at least once a year is lower than in France with 66 percent going at least once.

Comparisons of other healthcare personnel

Germany had the highest total number of employees in health and social care in Europe in 2021 with over 6.3 million individuals working in this sector, followed by the UK with approximately 4.2 million and France with roughly four million employees in the health and social care sector.

Counts of GP surgeries across England and Wales. Geographies include local authority districts (LADs), built up areas (BUAs) and combined authorities.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of this study was: to collect data describing the main features of general practice - family, personal, domiciliary and front-line care; to obtain information about the role of the general practitioner as seen by both patients and doctors.
There are ten datasets making up this study:
Main Patients SN:394
General Practitioners SN:704
Depression SN:705
G.P. Consultation SN:706
Out-Patients SN:707
Children SN:708
Mothers SN:709
Old People SN:710
Failure Schedules SN:835
No National Health Service Docotr SN:836
Main Topics:

Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions
Access to NHS hospital beds and diagnostic facilities (satisfaction). Paid or honorary appointments held at hospital, number of nights per week/weekend on call, opinion of emergency services, number of obstetrics cases in last 12 months. Enjoyable and frustrating aspects of general practice, special medical interests, opinion on optimal number of patients, methods of keeping up-to-date. Respondents were asked to agree/disagree with a number of statements about patients and general practice. Proportion of surgery consultations considered trivial, attitude to discussion of patient's personal problems, opinion on giving middle aged people regular check-ups, surgery hours.
Background Variables
Type of practice, ancillary help, social class of patients, appointment system, number of patients (NHS and private).

The Kinematic GPS (KGPS) data provide accurate high-resolution locational data of approximately 6400 km of roads in Great Britain using circular and/or linear transect data collected during two fieldwork campaigns (details below) carried out by the Landmap project team in order to validate the various Landmap image and elevation products. When processed, this data yields accurate 3-D coordinates that can be used for quality assessment purposes. Kinematic GPS is a technique used to enhance the precision of standard GPS, using a reference receiver of known location, such as a main road, to make corrections to the standard GPS-determined location yielding centimetre-level accuracy.

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded Landmap service which ran from 2001 to July 2014 collected and hosted a large amount of earth observation data for the majority of the UK, part of which was buildings data. After removal of JISC funding in 2013, the Landmap service is no longer operational, with the data now held at the NEODC.

Campaign 1

The first campaign, carried out in September 1999, required the kinematic GPS profiles for a number of pre-defined circular routes. This suited a 'Real-time Kinematic' (RTK-GPS) survey technique in which both GPS code pseudorange and carrier-phase measurements are recorded. This method is capable of yielding sub-decimetre accuracy over short baselines, generally less than 50 km.

The observing schedule was such that the reference receiver was established at a location deemed to be the centroid of the day's route so that the baseline distances from the 'local' reference receiver to mobile receiver would be kept to a minimum preventing the accumulation of distance-dependent errors. The mobile receiver would then be driven along the predefined route recording satellite observations at a rate of 5 Hz. Once the route was completed, the local reference station team was picked up and the entire team prepared to observe the next scheduled loop.

The mobile team covered almost 4,000 miles during the 14 days of the first campaign with the predefined circular routes representing some 2,800 miles (4,506km) of that total.

Campaign 2

The second campaign which took place during May and June of 2000 was geared to a different set of objectives and therefore had an observing schedule different to that of the first campaign. There was a requirement to observe some long GPS profiles that would essentially span a number of satellite-pass strips / several stereo-pair strips permitting some checking of the strip matching procedures using orthorectification techniques.

The establishment of a 'local' reference receiver station alongside each section of these proposed transects would have been too demanding in both time and logistics so an alternative processing approach was decided upon. The observing procedure was identical to that of the first campaign with the exception that the 'local' reference receiver remained in the same location for the duration of the campaign. A high-precision geodetic GPS receiver was established at a point of known co-ordinates at University College London where it collected GPS observations for the 9 days of this second campaign. The mobile receiver was driven along the required profiles recording data at a rate of 5Hz.

The routes followed for this second campaign contained a number of features as requested by the SPOT processing team that would aid them in their orthorectification tasks. One particular request was that a number of crossovers should be performed at major junctions whereby a mile or two of additional observations were taken on the feeder roads for the junction in question. Such manoeuvres provide the processing / imaging team with a greater number of features to identity and refer to as part of their orthorectification quality assessment routines. The nature of the road network in some areas meant that several long stretches of road were retraced or intersected which allowed some error checking.

Supplies details of all GP Practices that provide patients the functionality to electronically view their detailed coded records online.

Purpose

To represent the number of GP Practices that provide systemic capability for patients to view detailed coded records.

Current version updated: Jun-17

Next version due: See http://content.digital.nhs.uk/pomipublications