| MainStaffGroup | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin/Non-Clinical | 3.0% | 18.7% | 9.7% | 7.1% |
| Doctor | 4.7% | 3.1% | 0.6% | 1.0% |
| Nurse | 4.6% | 17.6% | 10.6% | 6.3% |
| Other Direct Patient Care | 5.9% | 16.5% | 7.3% | 5.7% |
General Practice Workforce Survey 2026
1 Executive Summary
As at 31 March 2026:
- The response rate in 2026 was 100%, an increase from 75% in 2025. This is likely due to survey completion being linked to eligibility for additional funding. As a result, figures for Non-General Practitioners are presented unweighted, while General Practitioner figures continue to be weighted using headcount data from the NPCCD.
- The GP whole time equivalent (WTE) (excluding Specialist Trainees) was 3,600.8 WTE, an increase of 0.3% from 3,591.5 WTE in 2025.
- The whole time equivalent of nurses in General Practice was 1,664.8 WTE a decrease of 4.1%.
- The total WTE in Other Direct Patient Care occupations was 478.0 WTE, 53.1% of which was Health Care Assistants.
- The total WTE in administrative and non-clinical staff was 6,798.8, 58.5% of which was receptionists.
- The GP vacancy rate was 6.2%, an increase from 3.8% at 31 March 2025.
- The nursing vacancy rate was 5.0%, an increase from 2.8% at 31 March 2025.
During the year ending 31 March 2026:
- The sickness absence rate for GPs was 2.2%, up from 1.8% in the year ending 31 March 2025. For other occupations the sickness absence rate was 3.1%, up from 2.2% in the year ending 31 March 2025.
- GP practices in Scotland reported using 309.3 WTE Locums, similar to last year.
- The percentage of practices using locums has risen slightly from 82.9% to 92.1%.
Official statistics
This report is published as Official Statistics in development.
In our development plan, we had planned to release data on the WTE of the General Practice workforce as Official statistics, with the data on the absences, vacancies and locum use remaining as Official Statistics in Development. However, as discussed in this report, the completeness of the survey has shown that a measurement error exists between the GP workforce from the NPCCD and the Survey. Whilst this is investigated we will continue to publish these WTE statistics as Official Statistics in Development.
2 Introduction
This release by Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland) provides information on the employment and vacancies of General Practitioners (GPs), Nurses and other general practice staff in Scotland on 31 March 2026. Absence rates and use of GP locum staff during the year ending 31 March 2026 are also reported.
The General Practice Workforce Survey was last carried out in 2025. Surveys before 2023 were published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and can be found on PHS’s website.
Background information, a glossary and links to other reports on the primary care workforce from across the UK can be found on our website.
This report is accompanied by a series of data tables providing users with additional detail on the results of previous surveys and an interactive dashboard.
3 Methods
3.1 Survey data collection
All GP practices in Scotland were surveyed, including 2C practices (practices run by the Health Board), partner owned practices, and 2 special GP practices that specialise in delivering services to people experiencing homelessness.
The survey was run by PSD Scotland and sent out to GP practices in Scotland on the NPCCD using a Microsoft PowerApp.
Practices are asked to complete four sections relating to their practice for the year ending 31 March 2026:
- a list of staff who are employed by their practice;
- a list of vacancies in their practice;
- the total number of absent sessions (for GPs) or hours for all other staff in each month;
- the number of locum sessions that their practice required and how many of them were filled.
Performer Registrars (medical practitioners in a GP training program) were not collected, as these doctors were employed and managed by NHS Education for Scotland (now PSD Scotland). A summary of the WTE of Performer Registrars, with data taken from NHS HR and Payroll systems, is available.
3.2 Sample data weighting
The response rate to the survey in 2026 was 100% of all eligible practices. However, comparisons with the National Primary Care Clinicians Database showed 4,507 GPs were recorded in the survey, compared with 4,688 GPs. A summary of the differences can be found in Section 5.1.
The survey results for GPs are weighted to account for the discrepancy between the number of GPs reported in the survey and the NPCCD and to ensure this year’s results are comparable with previous survey estimates.
The GP records on the NPCCD are used to manage patient CHI and medical record movements, so are considered to be of a high quality. There are sometimes delays in contracts being updated within the NPCCD, but these are typically small changes.
As the response rate to the survey was 100%, and there are no other sources to verify other staff groups, such as Nurses, Admin and other direct patient care employments, these figures have not been weighted.
As there is evidence, through the comparison with the NPCCD, that some GPs have not been included, it may be other staff were similarly not omitted from survey responses. However as we have no other data source of these staff, the numbers presented here may be an under estimation of the total employments for these groups.
Previous survey reports will be clear where weighted estimates have and have not been used.
Table 1 describes the different weightings used for each measure in this report.
| Staff Group | Measure | Weighting Used |
|---|---|---|
| General Practitioners | WTE | GP headcounts* |
| Contracted sessions | GP headcounts* | |
| Vacant sessions | GP headcounts* | |
| Locum sessions | GP headcounts* | |
| Absent sessions | GP headcounts* | |
| Practices using locums | Unweighted | |
| Practices with vacancies | Unweighted | |
| All Other Staff | WTE | Unweighted |
| Contracted hours | Unweighted | |
| Vacant hours | Unweighted | |
| Absent hours | Unweighted | |
| Practices with vacancies | Unweighted |
*GP headcounts in combinations of Board, designation, age group and sex
Practices now have access to the app throughout the year, and NHS Board primary care departments are working with practices to assess their intentions with the additional funding that has been announced. To do this, a baseline employment figure of 31 March 2025 is being used. During this process practices may correct their employment records for this time point. PSD Scotland will monitor these changes, and may revise the employment data for all staff groups, therefore these figures should be regarded as provisional.
3.3 Imputing missing data
Missing data on contracted hours and GP sessions, and staff age were imputed using a donor-based imputation that relies only on this year’s survey sample data for replacement values, and preserves existing relationships and distribution present in the sample data. These methods help to provide a more complete data set for analysis.
The number of records where imputed records were created is shown in Table 2 and Table 3.
| MainStaffGroup | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin/Non-Clinical | 1.5% | 0.0% | 1.1% | 1.4% |
| Doctor | 5.0% | 3.0% | 2.1% | 1.8% |
| Nurse | 1.9% | 0.1% | 1.7% | 1.7% |
| Other Direct Patient Care | 2.8% | 0.3% | 1.0% | 0.0% |
3.4 GP Headcount
GP headcounts are sourced from the National Primary Care Clinicians Database (NPCCD). Headcount is a unique count of GMC Numbers.
The NPCCD is a live administrative database, with data being updated over time. Although the published historic headcount time series in the NHS Scotland dashboard is updated when a new census date is available, the headcount presented here is not, this may cause some small differences between the two sets of data.
3.5 Employment per 10,000 population
The number of GPs per capita is calculated by dividing the number of GPs by the registered list size of practices. The registered list sizes are published by Public Health Scotland in their General Practice List Sizes and Demographics dashboard (General Practice List Sizes and Demographics publication).
4 Results
4.1 GP Practices
4.1.1 Response rates
The overall response rate for the survey was 100.0%, with data submitted from 878 practices. Table 4 presents the response rate for each NHS Board and is based on the number of practices eligible to respond to the survey in March 2026. This is up substantially from 75% last year.
This year access to the additional investment to general practice was subject to completion of the workforce survey, leading to a 100% response rate.
| HealthBoard | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 88.7% | 100.0% |
| NHS Borders | 59.1% | 100.0% |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 53.1% | 100.0% |
| NHS Fife | 86.5% | 100.0% |
| NHS Forth Valley | 81.3% | 100.0% |
| NHS Grampian | 85.7% | 100.0% |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 61.6% | 100.0% |
| NHS Highland | 70.3% | 100.0% |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 87.2% | 100.0% |
| NHS Lothian | 87.0% | 100.0% |
| NHS Orkney | 85.7% | 100.0% |
| NHS Shetland | 50.0% | 100.0% |
| NHS Tayside | 74.6% | 100.0% |
| NHS Western Isles | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| Scotland | 75.5% | 100.0% |
4.1.2 Session Length
Session length varies between practices. The current BMA standards for a session of GP care is 4 hours 10 minutes, with a full time GP doing 8 sessions per week. The data collected by this survey shows that the most common session length recorded was 4 hours 10minutes (46%), followed by 5 hours (22%).
Session lengths with fewer than 5 practices have been grouped into “Other”.
As session length can vary, this means the total number of hours worked by two GPs with the same WTE may be different.
4.2 Primary Care Workforce
The General Practice Workforce survey asks about several different staff groups; General Practitioners, Nurses, Other Direct Patient Care occupations and Admin and Clerical.
General Practitioners WTE is defined as 8 contracted sessions per week and for all other staff WTE is 37 hours per week.
As discussed in the Section 3.2 the methodology has changed this year, due to the completeness of the return. Changes in employment, particularly in the non General Practitioner Workforce may be due to this change in methodology.
4.2.1 General Practitioners
There were 4,688 General Practitioners (GPs) on 31 March 2026, equivalent to 3,600.8 WTE (Table 6).
GPs over time
Between 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2026, GP WTE increased by 0.3%.
Since 2015, GP Headcount has increased by 6.3% and estimated WTE has increased by 0.1%. (Figure 2 and Table 5)
Due to the way the WTE is calculated using a weighted estimate, confidence intervals have been added to the data for the past four years, (the years in which the data is available at the granularity required for these calculations).
| Year | Headcount | Headcount change (%) | WTE | WTE change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 4,394 | 3,675.1 | ||
| 2015 | 4,410 | 0.4% | 3,603.7 | -1.9% |
| 2017 | 4,385 | -0.6% | 3,520.3 | -2.3% |
| 2019 | 4,400 | 0.3% | 3,613.0 | 2.6% |
| 2022 | 4,514 | 2.6% | 3,493.9 | -3.3% |
| 2023 | 4,474 | -0.9% | 3,478.4 | -0.4% |
| 2024 | 4,438 | -0.8% | 3,453.1 | -0.7% |
| 2025 | 4,582 | 3.2% | 3,591.5 | 4.0% |
| 2026 | 4,688 | 2.3% | 3,600.8 | 0.3% |
GPs by NHS Board
The WTE of GPs by the number of patients varies by NHS Board, with rural and island boards tending to have higher rates.
There is not such a clear relationship with the mean WTE, where other factors such as deprivation may also play a role in some more urban boards.
| HealthBoard | Headcount | WTE | Mean WTE | Headcount per 10,000 patients | WTE per 10,000 patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 316 | 246.6 | 0.78 | 8.1 | 6.3 |
| NHS Borders | 104 | 78.9 | 0.76 | 8.5 | 6.5 |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 114 | 95.0 | 0.83 | 7.4 | 6.2 |
| NHS Fife | 291 | 220.1 | 0.76 | 7.3 | 5.5 |
| NHS Forth Valley | 254 | 180.7 | 0.71 | 7.7 | 5.5 |
| NHS Grampian | 469 | 357.1 | 0.76 | 7.5 | 5.7 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 958 | 745.5 | 0.78 | 6.8 | 5.3 |
| NHS Highland | 397 | 310.1 | 0.78 | 11.7 | 9.1 |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 408 | 331.0 | 0.81 | 5.7 | 4.6 |
| NHS Lothian | 928 | 660.2 | 0.71 | 8.7 | 6.2 |
| NHS Orkney | 38 | 26.4 | 0.69 | 17.0 | 11.8 |
| NHS Shetland | 29 | 25.0 | 0.86 | 12.3 | 10.6 |
| NHS Tayside | 401 | 296.7 | 0.74 | 8.9 | 6.6 |
| NHS Western Isles | 33 | 27.5 | 0.83 | 12.2 | 10.2 |
| Scotland | 4,688 | 3,600.8 | 0.77 | 7.7 | 5.9 |
1. Doctors may work in more than one board, so the national total may not equal the sum of the Board totals.
GPs by designation
GPs are collectively termed ‘Performers’. These can be broken down into further sub-categories or designations.
The largest designation by both headcount and WTE was Performers; this group also had the highest mean WTE (Table 7).
| Year | DesignationGroup | Headcount | WTE | Mean WTE | WTE per 10,000 patients | Headcount per 10,000 patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Performer | 3,076 | 2,500.0 | 0.81 | 4.13 | 5.08 |
| 2026 | Performer Salaried | 1,581 | 1,076.2 | 0.68 | 1.78 | 2.61 |
| 2026 | Performer Retainee | 50 | 24.6 | 0.49 | 0.04 | 0.08 |
| 2026 | All GPs | 4,688 | 3,600.8 | 0.77 | 5.94 | 7.74 |
SIMD and Urban Rural
The mean GP WTE of GPs working in practices in the most deprived areas as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) (0.76) on the 31 March 2026 was higher than the mean WTE of GPs working at practices in the least deprived areas (0.7) (Table 8). The WTE by the number of patients is lower in more deprived areas than less deprived.
| Health Board | Headcount | WTE | Mean WTE | WTE per 10,000 Patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (Most Deprived) | 1,176 | 892.6 | 0.76 | 5.50 |
| 2 | 1,113 | 847.1 | 0.76 | 5.67 |
| 3 | 992 | 719.1 | 0.72 | 6.19 |
| 4 | 855 | 633.5 | 0.74 | 5.79 |
| 5 (Least Deprived) | 720 | 505.8 | 0.70 | 5.56 |
| Health Board | Headcount | WTE | Mean WTE | WTE per 10,000 Patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large Urban Areas | 1,947 | 1,479.2 | 0.76 | 5.27 |
| Other Urban Areas | 1,567 | 1,179.7 | 0.75 | 5.65 |
| Accessible Small Towns | 526 | 388.9 | 0.74 | 5.72 |
| Remote Small Towns | 36 | 32.6 | 0.90 | 6.69 |
| Accessible Rural | 110 | 84.2 | 0.77 | 6.46 |
| Remote Rural | 336 | 217.5 | 0.65 | 5.86 |
| Very Remote Rural | 112 | 72.3 | 0.65 | 8.20 |
| Very Remote Small Towns | 187 | 143.6 | 0.77 | 12.12 |
Locums
Locums are not reported from the NPCCD so are not included in the weighted numbers above. Previously, the have been weighted by the practice list sizes per board, however in 2026 as response rates were 100%, the data are unweighted for this year.
Within this report locums are reported in two separate ways. Locums who are on a longer term contract, e.g. covering an absence such as maternity leave, or a vacancy, are recorded in the staff census. Practices are also asked to record the total sessions provided by locums over the past year. This total is recorded in Section 4.6.
Data presented in Figure 6 are for those locums who GP practices have reported as part of their staff census.
Performer Registrars
Doctors who want to become GPs must go through a 3 year full time Specialty Training Programme. As part of this, they work for 18 months in general practice and 18 months in hospital specialties, such as psychiatry or paediatrics.
The data presented in Figure 7 shows the headcount and WTE of doctors working in General practice on the 31st of March each year. This data comes from NHS HR and Payroll systems, and differs slightly from the provisional data published from the NPCCD. These differences are small (<10) and may improve as the NPCCD is updated.
| Health Board | Headcount | WTE | Mean WTE | WTE per 10,000 patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 42 | 36.90 | 0.88 | 0.94 |
| NHS Borders | 8 | 7.00 | 0.88 | 0.58 |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 22 | 19.30 | 0.88 | 1.26 |
| NHS Education for Scotland | 12 | 9.80 | 0.82 | |
| NHS Fife | 32 | 28.37 | 0.89 | 0.71 |
| NHS Forth Valley | 41 | 36.60 | 0.89 | 1.11 |
| NHS Grampian | 83 | 67.80 | 0.82 | 1.08 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 180 | 151.40 | 0.84 | 1.08 |
| NHS Highland | 41 | 35.10 | 0.86 | 1.03 |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 54 | 46.20 | 0.86 | 0.64 |
| NHS Lothian | 139 | 120.78 | 0.87 | 1.14 |
| NHS Orkney | 4 | 3.80 | 0.95 | 1.70 |
| NHS Shetland | 2 | 1.60 | 0.80 | 0.68 |
| NHS Tayside | 59 | 49.65 | 0.84 | 1.11 |
| NHS Western Isles | 2 | 1.30 | 0.65 | 0.48 |
| Scotland | 721 | 615.60 | 0.85 | 1.02 |
4.2.2 Nurses
Nurses over time
There was a 2.8% decrease in nurse headcount and a 4.1% decrease in WTE since the 2025 survey (Figure 8 and Table 10). This change is most likely due to the change in methodology, with numbers no longer being weighted. Previous totals were estimates and subject to sample variation.
| Year | Headcount | WTE | Headcount Change (%) | WTE Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2,125 | 1,420.0 | ||
| 2015 | 2,175 | 1,455.0 | 2.4% | 2.5% |
| 2017 | 2,297 | 1,541.0 | 5.6% | 5.9% |
| 2019 | 2,465 | 1,690.0 | 7.3% | 9.7% |
| 2022 | 2,414 | 1,689.5 | -2.1% | 0.0% |
| 2023 | 2,438 | 1,702.4 | 1.0% | 0.8% |
| 2024 | 2,447 | 1,710.3 | 0.4% | 0.5% |
| 2025 | 2,464 | 1,735.7 | 0.7% | 1.5% |
| 2026 | 2,396 | 1,664.8 | -2.8% | -4.1% |
Nurses by NHS Board
There were 2,396 nurses in post in GP practices on 31 March 2026, equivalent to 1,664.8 WTE (Table 11).
Island boards, for example NHS Sheltand, NHS Orkney and NHS Western Isles tend to have a higher number of Nurses by number of patients.
| HealthBoard | Headcount | WTE | Mean WTE | Headcount per 10,000 patients | WTE per 10,000 patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 163 | 128.6 | 0.79 | 4.2 | 3.3 |
| NHS Borders | 67 | 45.4 | 0.68 | 5.5 | 3.7 |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 100 | 67.8 | 0.68 | 6.5 | 4.4 |
| NHS Fife | 161 | 114.0 | 0.71 | 4.1 | 2.9 |
| NHS Forth Valley | 116 | 83.2 | 0.72 | 3.5 | 2.5 |
| NHS Grampian | 360 | 229.9 | 0.64 | 5.8 | 3.7 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 394 | 268.1 | 0.68 | 2.8 | 1.9 |
| NHS Highland | 202 | 132.4 | 0.66 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 247 | 181.9 | 0.74 | 3.4 | 2.5 |
| NHS Lothian | 328 | 229.0 | 0.70 | 3.1 | 2.2 |
| NHS Orkney | 24 | 17.4 | 0.72 | 10.8 | 7.8 |
| NHS Shetland | 28 | 19.8 | 0.71 | 11.8 | 8.4 |
| NHS Tayside | 182 | 130.3 | 0.72 | 4.1 | 2.9 |
| NHS Western Isles | 24 | 17.1 | 0.71 | 8.9 | 6.3 |
| Scotland | 2,396 | 1,664.8 | 0.69 | 4.0 | 2.7 |
1. Nurses may work in practices in different Health Boards, so the Scotland headcount may differ from the sum of Board headcounts.
Designation
Data was collected on several different nursing roles.
The largest group was General Practice Nurses who accounted for 58.7% of the total headcount and 55.8% of the total WTE. The next largest group was Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP), accounting for for 34.0% of the total headcount and 38.1% of the total WTE (Figure 9).
There has been a slight increase in the proportion of the staff recorded as ANPs, with the proportion of General Practice Nurses and Treatment Room Nurses decreasing.
Mean WTE
There was some variation in the mean WTE between nursing designations (Figure 10). ANPs had a mean WTE of 0.78 whereas General Practice Nurses had an mean WTE of 0.66.
SIMD and Urban Rural
Nurses in the most deprived areas have a slightly higher Mean Whole Time equivalent (0.71) than those in the least deprived areas (0.66).
| SIMD | Headcount | WTE | MeanWTE | WTEPer10000Patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 540 | 383.7 | 0.71 | 2.32 |
| 2 | 607 | 435.3 | 0.72 | 2.84 |
| 3 | 496 | 336.9 | 0.68 | 2.75 |
| 4 | 425 | 292.0 | 0.69 | 2.59 |
| 5 | 324 | 214.1 | 0.66 | 2.21 |
| UrbanRural | Headcount | WTE | MeanWTE | WTEPer10000Patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large Urban Areas | 843 | 570.6 | 0.68 | 2.02 |
| Other Urban Areas | 779 | 561.2 | 0.72 | 2.58 |
| Accessible Small Towns | 293 | 208.1 | 0.71 | 2.94 |
| Remote Small Towns | 35 | 27.1 | 0.77 | 5.57 |
| Accessible Rural | 91 | 66.6 | 0.73 | 4.97 |
| Remote Rural | 172 | 111.1 | 0.65 | 2.74 |
| Very Remote Rural | 59 | 37.1 | 0.63 | 3.94 |
| Very Remote Small Towns | 97 | 63.9 | 0.66 | 5.22 |
4.2.3 Other Direct Patient Care occupations
In addition to GPs and nurses, there is a wide range of other clinical roles employed by the practice that make up the multi-disciplinary team within primary care (Table 14).
The most common role in this group were Health Care Assistants, 253.8WTE (404 headcount). The next most common groups were Pharmacists, Pharmacy Dispensers, with around 65 WTE in each across Scotland.
The total WTE has decreased between the 2025 and 2026 survey to 478 WTE.
| Staff role | Headcount | WTE | Mean WTE | WTE Per 10,000 Patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 773 | 478.0 | 0.62 | 0.79 |
| Health Care Assistant | 404 | 253.8 | 0.63 | 0.42 |
| Pharmacist | 100 | 63.8 | 0.64 | 0.11 |
| Phlebotomist | 89 | 44.0 | 0.49 | 0.07 |
| Dispenser | 87 | 60.2 | 0.69 | 0.10 |
| Paramedic | 33 | 23.3 | 0.71 | 0.04 |
| Other Clinical Role | 25 | 16.3 | 0.65 | 0.03 |
| Physician Associate | 13 | 10.9 | 0.84 | 0.02 |
| Physiotherapist | 11 | 3.3 | 0.30 | 0.01 |
| Therapist (including Counsellor) | 11 | 2.5 | 0.23 | 0.00 |
4.2.4 Administrative and Non-Clinical Staff
There were 18,304 administrative and non-clinical staff employed in primary care, with Receptionists making up 59.5% of the total headcount.
There has been a fall in the headcount and WTE of most admin groups, however this may be due to the change in methodology, where data is no longer weighted.
| Staff role | Headcount | WTE | MeanWTE | WTE per 10,000 patients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Admin and Non Clinical Roles | 9,152 | 6,798.8 | 0.74 | 11.22 |
| Receptionist | 5,442 | 3,980.6 | 0.73 | 6.57 |
| Other / Combined role | 1,531 | 1,115.7 | 0.73 | 1.84 |
| Practice Manager / Manager | 1,182 | 1,022.0 | 0.86 | 1.69 |
| Medical Secretary | 674 | 513.4 | 0.76 | 0.85 |
| Estates and Ancillary | 180 | 53.2 | 0.30 | 0.09 |
| Apprentice | 73 | 59.1 | 0.81 | 0.10 |
| Telephonist | 43 | 30.7 | 0.71 | 0.05 |
| Management Partner | 27 | 24.0 | 0.89 | 0.04 |
4.3 Demographics
Labour market outcomes may depend on the age and sex of the workforce. For example, outflows from the workforce and mean WTE may be related to age and sex.
4.3.1 General Practitioners
There were more female GPs than male in every age group under 60 and the mean WTE was greater for males in every age group under 65. (Figure 15)
4.3.2 Nurses
On 31 March 2026, 30.6% of Advanced Nurse Practitioners were over 55 (27% of the WTE). For other nurses this is 35.1% (27.3% of the WTE) (Figure 16).
4.4 Absences
Sickness absence can result in cancelled appointments and procedures and lead to increased spend on locums and temporary staff.
Absence rates are calculated as the number of sessions or hours lost to absence divided by the total number of contracted sessions or hours.
\[ \frac{\text{Sessions Lost to Absence}}{\text{Total Contracted Sessions over the year}} \]
This where the total sessions is the number of contracted sessions for staff employed at 31 March multiplied by the number of weeks in the year (52.179), an estimate of the total contracted sessions worked over the year.
Absence rates for the Non GP workforce before the year ending 31 March 2026 were weighted, absence rates from the year ending 31 March 2026 onwards are unweighted.
The Sickness absence rate was 2.2% for General Practitioners and 3.1% for all other staff.
The Sickness absence rate has increased for both GPs and Other staff in 2026, (Table 16), however they remain broadly similar to previous years.
Sickness absence by staff group is not published for NHS Scotland workforce, however total sickness absence rates for the NHS Scotland workforce was 6.4%.
Data was also collected on Parental and Special leave and is available in the Dashboard
| StaffGroup | LeaveType | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Practitioners | Sick leave | 2.6% | 3.0% | 1.8% | 2.2% |
| General Practitioners | Maternity and Paternity leave | 2.6% | 3.4% | 1.9% | 2.5% |
| Non Doctor staff | Sick leave | 2.9% | 3.1% | 2.2% | 3.1% |
| Non Doctor staff | Maternity and Paternity leave | 0.8% | 1.2% | 0.8% | 1.0% |
4.5 Vacancies
Vacancy rates help us to understand labour demand and supply in primary care.
In this report GP vacancy rate is defined as:
\[ \frac{\text{Vacant GP sessions}}{\text{Sessions of GPs in post + Vacant GP sessions}} \]
where
Vacant GP sessions in the year is the sum of the weekly sessions of all vacant GP posts at 31 March of each year
Sessions of GPs in post is the sum of the weekly sessions of all GPs in post on 31st March of each year
For nursing and other staff groups vacancy rates we have used WTE instead of sessions.
Additionally, practices were asked if they were actively seeking to recruit to these vacancies at the time of the survey.
4.5.1 General Practitioners
Over Time
The vacancy rate has increased from 3.8% at 31 March 2025 to 6.2% at 31 March 2026.
The vacancy rate for General Practitioners is similar to the vacancy rate for NHS Scotland Consultants (6.0%) on 31 March 2026.
Seeking to recruit
GP practices were asked whether, for the vacancies they reported, they were actively seeking to recruit for the post.
There were 951.0 vacant sessions that were still open at 31st of March excluding those with a fill date after the census date, as these posts are no longer being actively recruited to. Practices were actively seeking to recruit to 752.0 (79.1%) of these sessions.
Of the vacant sessions were practices were not seeking to recruit, practices were asked to provide a reason, from No funding available, No suitable candidate, or Other. The most common reason given was Other with 49.2%, followed by No funding available with 23.6%.
Vacancies by NHS Board
NHS Highland had the highest number of vacant sessions, 412, with a vacancy rate of 14.3%.
NHS Shetland had the highest vacancy rate, 28.3%.
NHS Forth Valley had the lowest vacancy rate, 1.0%.
| HealthBoard | % of practices with vacancies | Vacant GP sessions | Contracted GP sessions | Vacancy rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 26.4% | 81 | 1,972.4 | 3.9% |
| NHS Borders | 23.8% | 49 | 631.1 | 7.2% |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 35.5% | 80 | 760.2 | 9.5% |
| NHS Fife | 29.4% | 99 | 1,760.6 | 5.3% |
| NHS Forth Valley | 6.2% | 14 | 1,445.4 | 1.0% |
| NHS Grampian | 33.8% | 198 | 2,857.1 | 6.5% |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 16.1% | 241 | 5,964.4 | 3.9% |
| NHS Highland | 26.4% | 412 | 2,480.4 | 14.2% |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 28.0% | 207 | 2,648.3 | 7.2% |
| NHS Lothian | 26.3% | 259 | 5,281.8 | 4.7% |
| NHS Orkney | 28.6% | 16 | 210.9 | 7.1% |
| NHS Shetland | 50.0% | 79 | 200.3 | 28.3% |
| NHS Tayside | 30.5% | 168 | 2,373.5 | 6.6% |
| NHS Western Isles | 11.1% | 6 | 219.7 | 2.7% |
| Scotland | 24.3% | 1909 | 28,806.2 | 6.2% |
Designation group
Vacancy rates are generally higher for Performer Salaried than Performers. This may be due to differences in how Salaried GPs and Performers are recruited.
Vacancy rates have increased for the Performer Salaried and Performer Retainees, although the relatively small number of Performer Retainees mean small changes in vacancies can lead to large changes in rates.
Increased vacancy rates could be due to increased funding being made available that allows GP practices to recruit more staff.
| DesignationGroup | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performer | 4.8% | 4.1% | 3.4% | 3.4% |
| Performer Retainee | 16.8% | 17.4% | 5.7% | 13.2% |
| Performer Salaried | 25.8% | 16.2% | 4.8% | 12.1% |
| Total | 10.9% | 7.6% | 3.8% | 6.2% |
4.5.2 Nurses
The vacancy rate in nursing roles was 5.0% on the 31 March 2026. (Table 19), a rise from the vacancy rate in 2025, 2.8%.
Seeking to recruit
For the nursing vacancies practices reported that they were actively seeking to recruit for 7,175.9 vacant hours, which was 67.7% of the total vacant hours.
NHS Board
NHS Orkney, NHS Fife and NHS Lanarkshire had slightly higher vacancy rates than other NHS Boards (greater than 7%) on 31 March 2026.
| HealthBoard | % of practices with vacancies | Vacant hours | Contracted hours | Vacancy rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 11.3% | 134.0 | 4,757.8 | 2.7% |
| NHS Borders | 4.8% | 38.0 | 1,679.3 | 2.2% |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 9.7% | 65.0 | 2,508.2 | 2.5% |
| NHS Fife | 25.5% | 344.9 | 4,290.8 | 7.4% |
| NHS Forth Valley | 10.4% | 143.0 | 3,078.3 | 4.4% |
| NHS Grampian | 26.5% | 493.8 | 8,554.7 | 5.5% |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 12.1% | 534.0 | 9,919.5 | 5.1% |
| NHS Highland | 15.4% | 253.0 | 4,898.1 | 4.9% |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 20.4% | 537.1 | 6,731.9 | 7.4% |
| NHS Lothian | 14.9% | 429.0 | 8,474.0 | 4.8% |
| NHS Orkney | 28.6% | 128.0 | 642.5 | 16.6% |
| NHS Shetland | 10.0% | 22.7 | 754.3 | 2.9% |
| NHS Tayside | 10.2% | 117.0 | 4,821.2 | 2.4% |
| NHS Western Isles | 22.2% | 34.0 | 634.0 | 5.1% |
| Scotland | 15.3% | 3,269.9 | 61,709.9 | 5.0% |
Designation
Vacancy rates have risen for the two largest groups of Nurses; General Practice Nurse and Advanced Nurse Practitioner which make up around 95% of the Nursing workforce.
The vacancy rate for Consultant Nurses was very high last year, but this is due to the small number of WTE in this group.
| OtherStaffDesignation | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Nurse Practitioner | 12.8% | 4.0% | 2.4% | 4.7% |
| Consultant Nurse | 3.9% | 0.0% | 30.2% | 0.0% |
| General Practice Nurse | 9.4% | 3.9% | 2.4% | 5.2% |
| Mental Health Nurse | 13.3% | 8.0% | 8.5% | 7.1% |
| Other | 4.7% | 3.9% | 7.6% | 6.9% |
| Treatment Room Nurse | 11.4% | 6.1% | 5.6% | 3.1% |
| Total | 10.7% | 4.1% | 2.8% | 5.0% |
4.5.3 Other Direct Patient Care occupations
The vacancy rate has increased for Other Direct Patient Care roles to 3.00%.
| OtherStaffDesignation | % of practices with vacancies | Vacant hours | Contracted hours | Vacancy rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 3.2% | 543.0 | 17,719.6 | 3.0% |
| Health Care Assistant | 1.3% | 240.4 | 9,407.9 | 2.5% |
| Pharmacist | 1.1% | 172.3 | 2,364.4 | 6.8% |
| Dispenser | 0.3% | 49.1 | 2,229.6 | 2.2% |
| Phlebotomist | 0.2% | 36.1 | 1,629.1 | 2.2% |
| Paramedic | 864.6 | |||
| Other Clinical Role | 603.2 | |||
| Physician Associate | 0.1% | 36.1 | 405.2 | 8.2% |
| Physiotherapist | 0.1% | 2.0 | 123.5 | 1.6% |
| Therapist (including Counsellor) | 0.1% | 7.0 | 92.2 | 7.1% |
4.6 Use of locum/sessional GP time
Locum GPs are doctors who provide cover for the absence of permanent staff due to maternity and paternity leave, sick leave, annual leave or vacancies.
Previously these data have been weighted using the list size of the practices who responded by the practices who didn’t. As all practices responded, the 2026 data have not been weighted.
The overall percentage of practices reporting locum use was 92%, very similar to the last two surveys (83%). The total number of WTE locums required was 340.1 and the total number of WTE locum requirements filled was 309.
There was a rise of 61 WTE on the total locum WTE required, with the percentage filled falling slightly between year ending 31 March 2025 and year ending 31 March 2026 from 93.2% and 91.0% the 2025 and 2026 surveys. Not all boards reported a decrease (Table 22).
| Year | HealthBoard | Practices using locums | WTE locums required | WTE locums filled | Percent Locum Filled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 94.2% | 11.0 | 9.8 | 89.8% |
| 2026 | NHS Borders | 95.2% | 9.0 | 8.7 | 96.5% |
| 2026 | NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 93.8% | 10.3 | 8.7 | 84.8% |
| 2026 | NHS Fife | 90.0% | 18.3 | 16.3 | 89.3% |
| 2026 | NHS Forth Valley | 89.6% | 16.2 | 15.6 | 96.6% |
| 2026 | NHS Grampian | 95.5% | 25.1 | 22.3 | 89.0% |
| 2026 | NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 90.5% | 87.1 | 80.0 | 91.9% |
| 2026 | NHS Highland | 88.5% | 43.3 | 39.9 | 92.1% |
| 2026 | NHS Lanarkshire | 92.0% | 38.0 | 35.4 | 93.1% |
| 2026 | NHS Lothian | 95.7% | 55.1 | 48.8 | 88.7% |
| 2026 | NHS Orkney | 71.4% | 2.0 | 2.0 | 96.1% |
| 2026 | NHS Shetland | 88.9% | 4.7 | 4.4 | 93.6% |
| 2026 | NHS Tayside | 96.6% | 17.7 | 15.0 | 84.7% |
| 2026 | NHS Western Isles | 87.5% | 2.4 | 2.3 | 98.4% |
| 2026 | Scotland | 92.1% | 340.1 | 309.3 | 91.0% |
5 Appendices
5.1 NPCCD and Survey Comparison
5.1.1 Practice Response rate
A total of 878 GP practices were surveyed, with all practices submitting a response resulting in a response rate of 100%.
5.1.2 GP Headcount
GPs recorded in the NPCCD and the survey were compared using GMC numbers: 4,372 GPs were a perfect match; 284 GPs were recorded in the NPCCD but not in the survey; and 105 GPs were recorded in the survey but not in the NPCCD.
5.1.3 Unmatched GPs
The following tables report the designation (Table 23) and Health Board (Table 24) of unmatched GPs. PSD Scotland will work with stakeholders to understand the reason for these measurement errors.
| SurveyDesignationGroup | Survey GPs missing from NPCCD | NPCCD GPs Missing from Survey |
|---|---|---|
| Performer | 35 | 107 |
| Performer Retainee | 4 | 4 |
| Performer Salaried | 67 | 173 |
| Total | 106 | 284 |
The total GPs by designation does not match other numbers as GPs may hold multiple designations in both systems
| HealthBoardName | NPCCD GPs Missing from Survey | Survey GPs Missing from NPCCD |
|---|---|---|
| NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 16 | 2 |
| NHS Borders | 13 | 1 |
| NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 10 | 5 |
| NHS Fife | 26 | 3 |
| NHS Forth Valley | 18 | 5 |
| NHS Grampian | 42 | 12 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 33 | 29 |
| NHS Highland | 23 | 16 |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 21 | 4 |
| NHS Lothian | 67 | 17 |
| NHS Orkney | 5 | |
| NHS Shetland | 1 | 4 |
| NHS Tayside | 24 | 8 |
| NHS Western Isles | 2 | |
| Total | 301 | 106 |
The total GPs by NHS Board does not match other numbers as GPs may work in multiple boards in both systems
5.2 Other information about the General Practice workforce
Public Health Scotland (PHS) also publish information on contact details for GP practices, GPs and list sizes.
PSD Scotland publish bi-annual data on the headcount of GPs within the NHS Scotland Workforce statistics. This uses the census dates of 31 March and 30 September each year, and also contains information on the number of GP Trainees, which are excluded from this report. Numbers of GPs vary seasonally, with numbers typically higher in September than March.
PSD Scotland also produces the results of the Primary Care Out of Hours Survey. GPs working in primary care may work across the two services.
5.3 Information about the General Practice Workforce in other parts of the UK
NHS England publish data on the workforce. Data is collected via the National Workforce Reporting Service (NWRS).
NHS Wales publishes data on the GP Workforce including on the WTE.
The Department of Health in Northern Ireland publishes data on the headcount of GPs in Northern Ireland, however WTE data is not available.
Definitions of the WTE (sometimes referred to as FTE) differ between nations. In England and Wales full time for both GPs and other general practice staff is defined as 37.5 hours, matching the definition for Agenda for Change staff (non doctor staff who working directly for the NHS) in those countries.
Within Scotland, as at 31 March 2026, the WTE for both Agenda for Change staff and General Practice staff was 37 hours, whole time for Agenda for Change has since reduced to 36hours.
Whole time for GPs within Scotland is defined as 8 sessions per week, although the length of a session may differ between practices.
5.4 Official statistics information
As a provider, we adhere to the Code of Practice for Statistics and are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation.
You can find more information on the Code of Practice, our protocols for Early and Pre-release Access to our publications, our publication timetable, and planned future developments to our official statistics publications.
5.4.1 Pre-release access to official statistics
Under terms of the “Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008”, PSD Scotland is obliged to publish information on those receiving Pre-Release Access (“Pre-Release Access” refers to statistics in their final form prior to publication). The standard maximum Pre-Release Access is five working days.
A list of the job roles and organisations who received PRA is available on Turas Data Intelligence