General Practice Workforce

This release by NHS Education for Scotland provides information on numbers and vacancies of General Practitioners (GPs), Nurses and other primary care staff in Scotland on 31 March 2024. Absences and use of GP locum staff during the year ending 31 March 2024 are also reported.

For this report, the vacancies methodology has been updated, vacant hours/sessions and vacancy rates from the 2023 survey have been revised.

18/12/2024: The figure quoted for the change in the hours lost to sickness absence for non-doctors in the Main Points and Executive Summary was incorrect. The number was correct in the main body of the report and in the accompanying tables. This has been updated.

• GP whole time equivalent (WTE) (excluding Specialist Trainees) continued to decrease, from 3,478.4 in 2023 to 3,453.1 WTE in 2024, a decrease of 0.7%.
• The whole time equivalent of nurses in General Practice increased by 0.5% to 1,710.3 WTE.
• The total WTE in Other Direct Clinical Care occupations has decreased slightly between the 2023 and 2024 survey to 503.1 WTE.
• The GP vacancy rate has decreased from 10.9% at 31 March 2023 to 7.6%. The nursing vacancy rate has decreased from 10.7% at 31 March 2023 to 4.1%.

• The number of GP sessions lost to sickness absence was around 5,500 (15%) higher than in 2022/23. The number of hours lost to sickness for non-doctor staff was around 35,000 (7%) higher than in 2022/23.
• GP practices in Scotland reported using 348.2 WTE Locums, a slight rise on the previous year.
• The number of practices using locums has remained stable. Most NHS Boards saw an increase in the percent of required locum sessions that were filled.