Archive of General Practice Workforce publications

We have been producing Official Statistics using the workforce Minimum Data Set (wMDS) since September 2015. Prior to that, general practice workforce statistics were produced annually based upon a different data set and are not comparable to wMDS-based figures. However, publications of workforce statistics prior to September 2015 remain available from https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-services for reference.

In June 2021, following a stakeholder consultation, we introduced some significant methodological changes and revised the entire wMDS-based time series back to September 2015. Please refer to the Methodological Change Notice (https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/find-data-and-publications/statement-of-administrative-sources/methodological-changes#workforce) for more information. At that stage, we moved the superseded releases to this archive.

Following user and stakeholder consultations, during 2018 and 2019 we made a range of revisions to our data processing and estimations methodologies, introduced a new data source for GP Registrars and revised the September 2015 to December 2016 full-time equivalent (FTE) GP locum estimates. More information about these changes is available in the publication for September 2019 listed below. As a result of the methodological changes, figures in the archived publications are not necessarily comparable with one another.

We advise you to use the revised figures available from https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-services to understand the general practice workforce and disregard the original figures, although they are available from the links below for transparency purposes.