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<p>The Department is unable to make an assessment on the trends in the number of general
practitioners (GPs) retiring in each of the last 10 years.</p><p> </p><p>The data
in the following table shows the headcount and full-time equivalent for the number
of GPs who joined or left the workforce between the beginning and the end of the specified
period in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, as reported by GP practices in England to
NHS Digital. The numbers exclude Registrars, Locums and GPs transferring between practices.
This data should be treated with caution as it is incomplete. Data on the number of
GPs leaving the profession is only available from September 2015.</p><p>NHS Digital
define a workforce joiner as a GP who was recorded as working in a practice at the
end of the specified time period, but not at its beginning. A workforce leaver is
defined as a GP who was recorded as working in a GP practice at the beginning but
not at the end of the specified time period. The number of leavers includes GPs who
retired as well as those who left general practice for other reasons, such as to join
a National Health Service organisation (non-GP practice).</p><p>The recording of leavers
and joiners depends on accurate recording by the employing practice of a GP’s General
Medical Council (GMC) number. Hence the data should be treated with caution, because
a GP could be incorrectly recorded as joining or leaving the workforce if they move
between practices and their GMC number is not correctly recorded by one or both practices.</p><p>The
figures are experimental statistics and are based only on a cohort of GP practices
that were open at both the beginning and end of the specified time period and supplied
GMC Numbers for 100% of their relevant GP staff.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td
rowspan="2"><p> </p></td><td rowspan="2"><p>Number of GP practices supplying data</p></td><td
colspan="2"><p>Full-Time-Equivalent</p></td><td colspan="2"><p>Headcount</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Joiners</p></td><td><p>Leavers</p></td><td><p>Joiners</p></td><td><p>Leavers</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September
2015 to September 2016</p></td><td><p>5,663 practices (74.9% of all practices)</p></td><td><p>1,708</p></td><td><p>1,793</p></td><td><p>2,393</p></td><td><p>2,473</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September
2016 to September 2017</p></td><td><p>6,323 practices (86.0% of all practices)</p></td><td><p>1,441</p></td><td><p>1,535</p></td><td><p>2,103</p></td><td><p>2,080</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September
2017 to September 2018</p></td><td><p>5,914 practices (82.9% of all practices)</p></td><td><p>1,397</p></td><td><p>1,521</p></td><td><p>2,120</p></td><td><p>2,111</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source:
NHS Digital General Practice Workforce, Final 31 March 2019, experimental statistics</p><p>Note:</p><p>Full
time equivalent (FTE) refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that
the post holder is contracted to work. 1 would indicate they work a full set of hours
(37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. In Registrars' contracts 1 FTE = 40 hours.
To ensure consistency, these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure
of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours in the table.</p>
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