Key general practice statistics and insights

Key general practice statistics for England

Last updated: Monday 10 June 2024

The RCGP has collated the following key statistics to provide an easily accessible source of information on the important work being delivered by general practice as well as the challenges facing the profession. This is designed to be a helpful resource for communicating with the public, press and policymakers.

These figures will be reviewed on a monthly basis, and updated as new data is released. Please note that all figures are currently for England only. We are working to produce similar information for each nation of the UK where possible, given the data available, and will update this page in due course.

If you wish to download or print this page for reference, you can do so by clicking the three dots in the top right-hand corner and selecting 'print' followed by 'save as PDF'.

General practice appointment data

Patients and workload in general practice data

Data on numbers of GPs

Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) staff numbers

Data on healthcare inequalities

Investment in primary care

Data and statistics references

RCGP surveys

General practice appointment data1

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Monthly appointment data, April 2024

  • Total consultations: General practice staff delivered 30.7 million consultations in April 2024.
  • Appointments on the same day: 13.6 million consultations were delivered on the same day as booking (3.3 million more than in April 2019), this was 45% of all appointments.
  • Appointments within two weeks: 24.9 million consultations were delivered within two weeks of booking (5.4 million more than in April 2019), this was 82% of all appointments.
  • Face-to-face appointments: 19.9 million consultations were carried out face to face (approximately 1 million more than in April 2019), this was 65% of all appointments.
  • Appointments by GPs: 13.7 million consultations were led by GPs (1.1 million more than in April 2019), this was 45% of all appointments.

Patients and workload in general practice data2

Made with Flourish

Data on numbers of GPs2

Made with Flourish

Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) staff numbers2

Made with Flourish

Data on healthcare inequalities

  • Practices in areas with the highest levels of income deprivation have on average 300 (14.4%) more patients per fully qualified GP than practices with the lowest levels of income deprivation (as of October 2022). This discrepancy has increased 50% since Oct 20183.
  • Research from the Health Foundation in 2021 showed that after accounting for the increased workload associated with greater health needs in more deprived areas, GPs in deprived parts of England received 7% less funding per need-adjusted patient than GPs in affluent areas4.

Investment in primary care

  • The NHS confederation has calculated that if funding patterns across all areas matched those areas that increased spending the most, every additional £1 spent on primary care would increase economic output by £145.

RCGP surveys

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, horizons continue to shift rapidly. The RCGP always works to place the GP voice at the centre of decisions affecting the delivery of care and patient health. One of the ways in which we can do this is by running short-timescale ad-hoc surveys to ensure that we know the issues GPs are facing, and their extent.

We use the results to inform conversations we have with key Government and NHS decision-makers, to feed into policy statements and reports and to support our campaigns and communications. This page includes the topline results from those surveys.

Survey results

GP Voice Survey of 2,190 GPs, 2024

In our latest annual survey, members told us about the pressures they are facing and the impact these risks having on patient care:

Over three quarters of GPs (79%) are concerned about the risk of having fewer GPs at their practice and the impact of this on the quality of patient care their practice can deliver.

63% of GP members do not feel they have enough time during appointments to build the patient relationships they need to deliver care.

Over 40% of GPs feel so stressed they can't cope at least once a week.

Read the full results of the RCGP GP Voice Survey 2024.

RCGP Survey of ST3 AiT Members: snapshot into GP jobs and visa issues

Our survey found significant concerns amongst this cohort relating to GP employment post-qualification, highlighting challenges with finding appropriate roles across the country, including significant difficulties relating to visa sponsorship: 

  • Only 47% of respondents have secured an NHS GP job in the UK, with 41% of them finding the process moderately or very difficult.
  • 23% of those who secured a role required visa sponsorship from their new employer.
  • 29% of those currently struggling to find an appropriate role said they could not find a practice that could sponsor them for their visa.
  • Significant difficulties were reported in finding appropriate roles, particularly in Greater Manchester, Birmingham and Black Country. There were overlaps between areas where difficulties were reported and areas with higher rates of socioeconomic deprivation.
  • The survey highlights considerable stress and anxiety among trainees due to employment pressures. 

These results show the need for urgent action to address and mitigate the employment barriers GPs currently face. We welcome the new ARRS funding and are ready to collaborate to ensure the implementation of the ARRS GP funding is as effective as possible. We’ve presented recommendations on this to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, which you can read via RCGP news. 

Previous GP experiences survey: RCGP Tracking Survey of 1,855 GPs, 20236 - Read the full results of here (PDF file, 863 KB).

COVID-19 surveys

Contact us for more information