Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many newly qualified general practitioners have started work in (1) the United Kingdom, (2) the South West of England, and (3) Bristol, in the last 12 months.

The information is not held centrally. On 25 March 2014 the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) published its annual census on the General and Personal Medical Services workforce, which collects information from general practices in England and reflects the position as at 30 September 2013. The census shows that 2,763 general practitioners (GP) (excluding registrars and retainers) joined the profession between 2012 and 2013. However, the census does not show how many of these joiners were newly qualified GPs.

The census also shows that there were 36,294 full time equivalent GPs working in the NHS in England. More information is available at:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB13849/nhs-staf-2003-2013-gene-prac-rep.pdf

The Government established Health Education England (HEE) to be responsible for delivering a better health and healthcare workforce for England and for ensuring a secure future supply. HEE has published the number of postgraduate medical trainees that enter general practice specialty training at ST1 in each of the last five years, at:

http://gprecruitment.hee.nhs.uk/Portals/8/Documents/Annual%20Reports/GP%20ST1%20Recruitment%20Figures%202009-13.pdf

The provision of health services in the UK is a devolved issue. The contacts for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are available from the links below:

Northern Ireland: http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index.htm

Scotland: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health

Wales: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/health/?lang=en