Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP’s have left the profession in (a) South Yorkshire, (b) England and (c) the UK in each of the last five years.

Data on the number of general practitioner (GPs) who have left the profession in South Yorkshire and the United Kingdom is not collected centrally.

The following table shows the number of qualified permanent GPs, excluding GPs in training grade and locums, leaving the general practice workforce in England by full time equivalent (FTE) and headcount to September 2020. Data for September 2020 to September 2021 is not held, as a review of the general practice workforce data methodology is currently underway.

Source: NHS Digital

Notes:

1. Figures are based only on non-estimated qualified permanent GPs (excludes Registrars and Locums) with either a completed General Medical Council (GMC) registration number, National Insurance Number, or both name and date of birth details. Data shows GPs who left the cohort workforce between the beginning and end of each specified time period.
   
2. A leaver is defined as a GP whose identifying information was present in the relevant dataset at the beginning but not at the end of the specified time period. These figures do not capture GP migration between practices during this period

3. Due to data quality, a GP recorded as a leaver in these figures may have left one practice and joined another practice with poor data completion. In instances such as this, a GP will be incorrectly recorded as a leaver due to the identifying information no longer being present in the dataset. Conversely, a GP could appear in the practice cohort as a joiner but may have joined from a practice with poor data completion rather than being a new addition to the GP workforce. Individuals across the various time periods were matched on the following data items; exact match on GMC registration number; exact match on National Insurance Number; exact match on forename and surname and date of birth; and exact match on initial and surname and date of birth. Further record matching steps are under ongoing investigation. Therefore these rates may be subject to revision in future and should be treated with caution.
4. For September 2016 these figures are based on 27,672 FTE, 99.0% of the 27,954 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2017 these figures are based on 27,278 FTE, 98.7% of the 27,624 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2018 these figures are based on 26,763 FTE, 99.1% of the 26,999 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2019 these figures are based on 26,401 FTE, 98.9% of the 26,681 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2020 these figures are based on 26,231 FTE, 98.9% of the 26,510 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2016 these figures are based on 33,544 Headcount, 99.0% of the 33,887 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2017 these figures are based on 33,473 Headcount, 98.7% of the 33,906 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2018 these figures are based on 33,319 Headcount, 99.1% of the 33,636 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2019 these figures are based on 33,827 Headcount, 98.9% of the 34,220 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

For September 2020 these figures are based on 34,651 Headcount, 98.9% of the 35,049 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.

5. Experimental statistics are official statistics which are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage. It should be noted that limitations may apply to the interpretation of this data

6. Figures do not contain estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid records.
7. Figures shown do not include GPs working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres and other alternative settings outside of traditional general practice such as urgent treatment centres and minor injury units

8. FTE refers to the proportion of full-time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. One would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time.

9. Data as at 30 September.