1 Executive summary

  • On 30 September 2023 there were 5,168 GPs (including GP trainees). This represents a 0.4% increase from September 2022.
  • The increase in GP headcount in 2023 is due to increasing numbers of GP Specialist Trainees in the workforce.
  • The number of female GPs continues to increase; female GP headcount increased by 0.6% 2023 while male GP headcount decreased by 1.6%
  • The percentage of the GP workforce aged 50 and over remains at 30%. 40% of the GP workforce is aged under 40.


2 Introduction

This publication presents data on the General Practitioner (GP) workforce contracted to work in Scottish practices in the years 2012 to 2023. This publication was previously released by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and included information on GP practices and their registered patients. With this 2023 release from NHS Education for Scotland (NES), we focus only on workforce data. A separate publication on GP practices and patients will be released by PHS on 19 December 2023.

Previous GP headcount and practice list size publications can be found on the PHS website.

For workforce information on all medical staff employed directly by the NHS, please see the NHS Scotland Workforce publications produced by NES.

The data in this report are sourced from the National Primary Care Clinician Database (NPCCD) which is a dynamic, administrative database. The time series is refreshed and updated with each annual release and figures for a given year may therefore differ slightly from previously published data. Differences from previously published figures will be the result of a combination of operational updates to the administrative system over time, and updates to the practice and GP exclusion criteria applied to the data extracted from NPCCD.


3 Results

3.1 GP numbers

All GP numbers in this report are headcounts of GPs rather than Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) and do not reflect differences in part-time hours. Headcounts for each year are calculated as at 30 September.

3.1.1 All GPs

Figure 1 shows a time series of GP Headcount from 2012 to 2023.



On 30 September 2023 there were 5,168 GPs (including GP trainees). This was 19 more GPs than in 2022, a 0.4% increase.


3.1.2 GP age and sex

Figure 2 presents numbers of male and female GPs each year from 2012 to 2023.



Females account for a majority of the GP workforce. The Male/Female percentage composition of the GP workforce has remained stable since 2020 with females accounting for around 62% of all GPs.

Between 2022 and 2023 the number of female GPs increased from 3,195 to 3,213 (+18) while the number of male GPs decreased from 1,931 to 1900 (-31). In 2023, the sex of 55 GPs was not recorded in NPCCD.

Figure 3 shows the age composition of the GP workforce for both male and female GPs.


In terms of age and sex categories, the largest headcount is found among female GPs under 40: 1,394, which accounts for 42% of all female GPs and 26% of all GPs. Among male GPs, 758 (38%) were aged 50 and over.

More detailed information on the age and sex profile of the GP workforce is provided in the supplementary tables that accompany this publication.

3.2 GP designations

In line with legislation that came into effect on 1 April 2004, GPs are collectively termed ‘Performers’. These can be broken down into further sub-categories or designations as follows:

  • Performer: a GP who has entered into a contract to provide services to patients and is effectively self-employed; usually a practice partner.

  • Performer salaried: A GP who is employed by the practice or NHS Board on a salaried basis.

  • Performer retainee: A GP, typically part-time, who can be utilised by a practice as required.

  • Performer Registrar/Specialist Trainee: A medical practitioner in a GP training program. Note that doctors in the first two years of their training (e.g. those in foundation programmes) are not included in the numbers provided here.

Figure 4 shows that most GPs are Performers and that numbers of Performers have been decreasing overall since 2012, while numbers of Performer Salaried and Performer Registrar GPs have been increasing.



Figure 5 shows that the increase in headcount between 2022 and 2023 is accounted for by GP trainees (Performer Registrars). If we exclude trainees from the data, there has been a small decrease in total GP headcount over the same period.



Additional detail on numbers of GPs by designation, age group, sex, NHS Board and Local Authority can be found in the supplementary tables accompanying this report.


4 Appendix: Background information

4.1 General Medical Services

General Medical Services (GMS) is the term used to describe the range of healthcare that is provided by General Practitioners (GPs or family doctors) as part of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The NHS specifies what GPs, as independent contractors, are expected to do and provides funding for this work through arrangements known as the General Medical Services Contract. Today, the GMS contract is a UK-wide arrangement with minor differences negotiated by each of the four UK health departments.

The GP figures reported in this publication do not include GPs who work only as locums, who work only in Out of Hours services, or who are in the early stages of GP training (those in Foundation programmes). The actual number of GPs working in Scotland is therefore higher than reported.

4.2 Data source

The GP workforce information in this publication is based on snapshots at 30 September for all years. Information on the GP workforce is collated and recorded routinely in an administrative database (NPCCD) by NHS Boards in line with regulatory and operational requirements. This information is considered to have a high degree of overall accuracy.