The Health and Social Care Information Centre has published GP workforce statistics that show some dramatic changes in general practice over the past year. The key findings are:
- Excluding locums, there are 40,697 headcount GPs working in general practices, a decrease of 408 (1.0%) since 2014.This represents 34,055 FTE GPs, an estimated decrease of 657 (1.9%)
- There were 7,674 GP practices in England, a decrease of 201 (2.6%) on last year
- The number of patients per practice has grown steadily in the last decade rising from 6,250 to 7,450 between 2005 and 2015, reflecting the move towards larger practices
- Total registered patients in England increased from 56.5 million in 2014 to 57.2 million (1.2%)
- Based on the data from 88.1% of practices, there are 9.9% of practices that are single-handed
- There are 4,802 practices (62.6%) holding General Medical Service (GMS) contracts; there are also a small number of GMS contracts (6) held by limited companies. There are 2,584 (33.7%) Personal Medical Service (PMS) contracts in 2015, down from 3,143 in 2014, with some PMS contracts (13) also being held by limited companies
- 54.4% of GPs (excluding locums) are female. Since 2005 the female practitioner headcount has increased from 42.5% of the total GP (excluding locums) population to 54.4% in 2015
- England has 20.8% practitioners aged 55 and over, a slight decrease from 21.3% in 2005. The proportion under 35 rose from 12.2% to 13.4% over the same period
Source: www.pulsetoday.co.uk