Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on meeting the Government's commitment to recruit 6,000 more GPs; and of those 6,000 GPs how many are planned to be (a) full time equivalent, (b) not new but retained, (c) trainees who are unable to work unsupervised and (d) operating under any form of licence restriction.

There were 1,672 more full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practice in December 2021 compared to December 2019. As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, it is for general practitioner (GP) practices to determine the appropriate workforce for their practice. As such, there is no central plan for the proportions of the future workforce in the format requested. In December 2021, there were 8,394 headcount qualified, permanent GPs working on a full-time basis.

The 2020 updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new retention schemes alongside existing schemes for the general practice workforce. The National GP Retention Scheme had 632 doctors on the scheme as at 31 December 2021 by headcount, contributing 250 FTE. Doctors in training to become GPs in training are unable to work as independent general practitioners until they have gained their Certificate of Completion of Training. As in hospital settings, doctors in training are delivering direct patient care whilst being safely supervised and supported.

The General Medical Council (GMC) may place restrictions on an individual’s ability to practise medicine where serious concerns arise about their fitness to practise. In addition to holding a GMC registration and licence to practise, any doctor who wishes to provide primary general medical services must also be included on NHS England’s Medical Performers List, which can also include restrictions on the work the doctor can undertake. The GMC’s restrictions do not necessarily prevent the doctor from continuing to provide those services.