Freedom of information request NIC-409137-W1S2H

Thank you for your email dated 12 October 2020 requesting the following information:

I would like to request data on figures for all NHS Hospital and Community Health Services Doctors and GPs:

1. Total number of doctors;
2. Number of joiners to the NHS; and
3. Number of leavers from the NHS.

 Please may I have the data broken down by:

1. Grade (Consultant, Specialty doctor, etc.); and
2. Nationality (UK, EU, Overseas); and
3. Place of Primary Medical Qualification (UK, EU, or Overseas).
4. For leavers only – an additional breakdown on the reason for leaving.

 I would like to request the data for each year ending on 30 June.  For example, 30 June 2016 should include the total number of joiners/leavers since 1 July 2015.

 I would like to have this data split into 6 tables:

1. Total number of HCHS doctors;
2. Total number of GPs;
3. Number of HCHS joiners to the NHS;
4. Number of GP joiners to the NHS;
5. Number of HCHS leavers from the NHS;
6. Number of GP leavers from the NHS.

We have considered your request and in accordance with S.1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and can confirm that we do hold some of the information that you have requested.

Data is collected and published separately for NHS Hospital and Community Health Services Doctors and GPs, and the below relates only to GPs:

General Practice Workforce figures are available from September 2015 to June 2020 in our most recent publication. 

The Bulletin Tables Excel file includes England-level time series for all reporting periods where data was collected. This was initially biannually from September 2015, becoming quarterly from December 2016 onwards. No data was collected for June 2016.

Table 4 in the Bulletin file contains figures for General Practitioners by Country of Qualification Group, where known. Figures are not available broken down by Grade or Nationality, neither of which are collected for GPs.

Figures on staff movement within General Practice, and Joiners and Leavers from it, are only calculated and reported biannually for March and September data.

The most recent available figures are in the September 2019 publication in the Supplementary Tables file showing figures in the time series from September 2015 to September 2019. Staff movement and joiner/leaver data for March 2020 was not published due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on practices’ ability to update their records which led to a suspected under-reporting of data changes for the March 2020 extract, which reduced the quality of the data available for the publication.

Tables 4a to 6b include figures on staff movement, including by Reason for Leaving, which relate to all staff joining and leaving practices within the reporting periods and not only to those joining and leaving general practice outright. For example one person moving from practice A to practice B to practice C within one time period would be counted as a leaver twice and a joiner twice, and would not have left Primary Care/General Practice at any point. Information on recruitment sources, reasons for leaving and destinations on leaving is reported where it is provided, but for some records this information is unknown and therefore all tables include an ‘Unknown’ row.  Figures for joiners and leavers to and from General Practice overall are only available for Qualified Permanent GPs (excludes Registrars & Locums) in an experimental format, and can be found in tables 13a to 14b. These figures are for those identified as joining and leaving the workforce category of Qualified Permanent GPs (excludes Registrars & Locums) in General Practice, and may include those moving too and from the GP registrar (trainee) and GP locum job roles in General Practice,  and also those moving to or from other settings within the wider healthcare system including secondary care and alternative primary care settings such as extended access.

We have produced three files which are attached and address the NHS hospital and community health services doctors aspect of the request.

The three files provided are:

HCHS Doctors by grade, nationality & cqual, Jun15-Jun20_AH3524 - Staff in Post

This shows the total number of Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) doctors by grade, nationality and country of qualification, for June 2015 to June 2020.

HCHS Doctors by grade, nationality & cqual, Jun15-Jun20_AH3524 – Turnover

This shows the total number of HCHS doctors joiners and leavers to the NHS, by grade, nationality and country of qualification, for June 2015 to June 2020.

HCHS Doctors leavers, Jun15-Jun20_AH3524 - Reason for leaving

The final piece of the analysis links the leavers displayed in the HCHS Doctors by grade, nationality and cqual, Jun15-Jun20_AH3524 – Turnover file to their reason for leaving where this is recorded. We have done this for total HCHS doctors only. Reason for leaving data is not available by grade/nationality/country of qualification as it would be too disclosive.