GP patient workload
This section describes trends in the average number of patients looked after by each General Practitioner, as well as the total number of consultations delivered by all general practice staff within a year.
- The number of patients per GP is 2,296 as of September 2023, this is an increase of 7.1% since 2019 1,2,3
- General practice staff delivered 340 million appointments in 2022, which is 9% more than in 2019. 4,5
GP numbers – October 2023 6
This section describes trends in the number of GPs (excluding registrars), as well as the number of practices.
- As of October 2023, there are 27,368 fully qualified full time equivalent GPs, 2.7 % less than in December 2019 (and 6.8% less than in 2015)
- As of October 2023, there are 37,369 full time equivalent GPs (including trainees), 8.3 % more than in December 2019 (and 8.7 % more than in 2015)
- GPs in training formed 27.0% of the full-time equivalent workforce in October 2023, compared to 19% in December 2019 (and 15% in 2015)
- As of September 2023, there are 6,370 GP practices, 6.8% fewer than in 2019. 7,8
Inequalities
This section compares the average number of patients looked after by each GP in the most income-deprived areas vs the least income-deprived areas, as well as the average income of a GP in these areas.
- Research from the Health Foundation in 2021 showed that after accounting for the increased workload associated with greater health needs in more deprived areas, GPs in deprived parts of England received 7% less funding per need-adjusted patient than GPs in affluent areas.9
- As of Oct 2022, practices in areas with the highest levels of income deprivation have on average 300 (14.4%) more patients per fully qualified GP than practices with the lowest levels of income deprivation. This discrepancy has increased 50% since Oct 2018. 10
GP experiences - RCGP Tracking Survey of 1262 GPs, 2022 11
This section describes data on GP's experiences of the effect of workload pressures on the quality of patient care that can be delivered.
- 68% of GPs say they don't have enough time in appointments to adequately assess and treat patients.
- 64% of GPs say they don't have enough time in appointments to build the patient relationships they need to deliver quality care.
- 65% of GPs who say patient safety is being compromised due to appointments being too short.
Appointment data - September 2023 12,13
This section describes trends in the time between booking and delivery of consultations in general practice, as well as the mode of delivery.
- General practice staff delivered 32.6 million consultations in September 2023.
- 12.3 million consultations were delivered on the same day as booking (1.8 million more than in September 2019), this was 40% of all appointments.
- 24.4 million consultations were delivered within two weeks of booking (3.4 million more than in September 2019), this was 79% of all appointments.
- 22 million consultations were carried out face to face (1.2 million more than in September 2019), this was 71% of all appointments.
- 13.9 million consultations were led by GPs (722,781 than in September 2019), this was 45%% of all appointments.
- NHS Digital, "General Practice Workforce, 31 October 2023", November 2023. [Online] [Accessed 23/11/2023]
- NHS Digital, "Appointments in General Practice, September 2023", August 2023. [Online]. Available [Accessed 26 /10/2023]
- NHS Digital, "Appointments in General Practice, May 2022”, June 2022. [Online]. Available [Accessed 30/03/2023]
- NHS Digital,"Appointments in General Practice, September 2023", October 2023. [Online] [Accessed 26 /10/2023]
- NHS Digital, "Appointments in General Practice, June 2021”, July 2021. [Online]. Available [Accessed 31/05/2023]
- NHS Digital, "General Practice Workforce, 31 October 2023", November 2023. [Online]. Available [Accessed 23 /11/2023]
- NHS Digital, "Appointments in General Practice, September 2023", October 2023. [Online]. Available [Accessed 26 /10/2023]
- NHS Digital, "Appointments in General Practice, May 2022”, June 2022. [Online]. Available [Accessed 31/05/2023]
- The Health Foundation, "Response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s inquiry – The Future of General Practice", 2021. [Online]. Available
- Office for National Statistics, "Trends in patient-to-staff numbers in General Practices in England: 2022", December 2022. [Online]. Available [Accessed 06/02/2023]
- RCGP, "Fit for the Future: A new plan for GPs and their patients", 2022. [Online]. Available
- NHS Digital, "Appointments in General Practice, September 2023", October 2023. [Online]. Available [Accessed 26/10/2023]
- NHS Digital, "Appointments in General Practice, February 2022”, March 2022. [Online]
RCGP surveys
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, horizons continue to shift rapidly. The RCGP always works to place the GP voice at the centre of decisions affecting the delivery of care and patient health. One of the ways in which we can do this is by running short-timescale ad-hoc surveys to ensure that we know the issues GPs are facing, and their extent.
We use the results to inform conversations we have with key Government and NHS decision-makers, to feed into policy statements and reports and to support our campaigns and communications. This page includes the topline results from those surveys.
Survey results
COVID-19
- RCGP member survey – UK vaccination programme topline tables - 28 January 2021 (336 KB PDF)
- Workload in General Practice in Wales: Topline tables - 23 December 2020 (330 KB PDF)
- Summary findings and toplines from remote working survey - 21 September 2020 (438 KB PDF)
- Long COVID survey summary and topline tables - 8 September 2020 (388 KB PDF)
- GP activity / workload over the COVID-19 pandemic and now - 23 July 2020 (453 KB PDF)
- GP working from home survey toplines tables - 8 April 2020 (279 KB PDF)
- Covid-19 advice and guidance - 26 March 2020 (267 KB PDF)
Contact us for more information
- RCGP policy team - policy@rcgp.org.uk
- RCGP press team - press@rcgp.org.u