Number of GPs employed in general practices (headcount and full-time equivalent), by GP type and area

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Next update expected:This dataset is not expected to be updated or replaced in the future

Updates

3rd March 2026
Dataset first published.

Main information

Designation
Official statistics
Data provider
NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership
Data source
Wales National Workforce Reporting System (WNWRS)
Time period covered
March 2020 to June 2025

Overview

Summary of dataset and variables

This shows the number of (headcount) and full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs employed in general practices by GP type and local health board, at every quarterly snapshot date.

Fully qualified GPs: Includes partners, providers, salaried, retainers and locum GPs only.

Fully qualified permanent GPs: Includes partners, providers, salaried and retainers only.

GP practitioners: Includes partners, providers and salaried GPs only.

GP locum: Is a GP who deputises temporarily at a practice, usually to cover for an absent GP practitioner.

GP retainer: Is a registered GP practitioner who has entered the GP Retainer Scheme, and typically works reduced hours.

GP registrar: Sometimes called a GP trainee, are qualified doctors who are training to become a GP through a period of training in general practice and hospitals.

F2: Are doctors with a full GMC registration in their second year of postgraduate medical training.

Data collection or calculation

Figures for headcounts are unique counts. So a person who has more than one contract in the same local health board (LHB) has been counted once in that LHB. However, a person who has a contract in more than one LHB would appear once against each LHB. Therefore the figures cannot be summed by LHB. Similarly, a person who has more than one contract in the same GP practitioner role has been counted once in that role, but a person who has a contract in more than one role would appear once against each role (the GP practitioner total figure is not the sum of the individual GP practitioner roles).

Figures for FTE count towards the GP type and health board each contract is with. Therefore the FTE figures for each health board will sum to the Wales figure and the sum of the FTE of GP practitioners, retainers and locums will sum to the FTE for 'fully qualified GPs', subject to small rounding differences.

The Wales National Workforce Reporting System (WNWRS) provides a secure web based tool developed to capture information on staff working in general practices in Wales.

In broad terms, the system works by practice managers inputting details of their staff onto the system, confirming the details every quarter. Data is then extracted on the last day of each quarter (March, June, September, December). NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) perform validations to improve data quality before anonymised data are shared with Welsh Government statisticians to validate further and produce these official statistics.

Data from other sources supplement the data from WNWRS, these include:

• Locum Hub Wales (LHW): number of locums working in practices during the quarter up to the snapshot date. • NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR), which is used to count registrar GPs and F2 trainees.

All locums who were active in the quarter are now counted from the 31 March 2024 data, including locum work in local health board managed practices that were not recorded through Locum Hub Wales. See the quality report for further information.

The increase in GP registrars from September 2020 is explained partly by new starters entering the role in August and being counted for the first time and a change to the training model whereby GP registrars spend longer on rotation at GP practices and more GP registrars have been recruited.

Changes to clusters:

The Dwyfor & North Meirionnydd cluster changed as of 1 April 2021 as some practices moved in from the South Meirionnydd cluster.

The South Meirionnydd cluster changed as of 1 April 2021 as some practices moved to the Dwyfor & North Meirionnydd cluster.

Statistical quality

Full-time equivalent (FTE) data is available from 31-Dec-2021 onwards.

March 2020 data: 2 out of the 404 active practices did not supply data or did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the WNWRS. These practices did supply initial data through an Excel spreadsheet in late 2019, which was used to pre-populate the WNWRS before the system went live for practices. Therefore the data provided in the initial spreadsheet has been used for these two practices. Note that both practices reported that there were no GP practitioners at the practice, but there were wider practice staff reported. At the time of reporting, the practices may have been using GP locums rather than GP practitioners. Note this does not affect data on registrars which is sourced from a different data collection system.

June 2020 data: 46 practices out of the 402 active practices with staff did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to June 2020 (they last confirmed between January and March 2020). An additional 50 practices did not modify data in the quarter up to June 2020 (although they did view data in that quarter). 3 practices updated their data shortly after the snapshot date (on 2 July).

September 2020 data: 6 practices out of the 399 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to September 2020 (they last confirmed between April and June 2020).

December 2020 data: 36 practices out of the 396 active practices with staff did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to December 2020.

March 2021 data: 9 practices out of the 396 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to March 2021.

June 2021 data: All active practices confirmed their data as being up-to-date in the quarter up to June 2021.

September 2021 data: 11 practices out of the 391 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to September 2021.

December 2021 data: 30 practices out of the 390 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to December 2021.

March 2022 data: 6 practices out of the 388 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to March 2022.

June 2022 data: 11 practices out of the 386 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to June 2022.

September 2022 data: 16 practices out of the 386 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to September 2022.

December 2022 data: 10 practices out of the 383 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to December 2022.

March 2023 data: 2 practices out of the 383 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to March 2023.

June 2023 data: 20 practices out of the 379 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to June 2023.

September 2023 data: 0 practices out of the 378 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to September 2023.

December 2023 data: 0 practices out of the 374 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to December 2023.

March 2024 data: 0 practices out of the 374 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to March 2024.

June 2024 data: 0 practices out of the 372 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to June 2024.

September 2024 data: 0 practices out of the 371 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to September 2024.

December 2024 data: 0 practices out of the 370 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to December 2024.

March 2025 data: 0 practices out of the 370 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to March 2025.

June 2025 data: 0 practices out of the 370 active practices did not confirm their data was up-to-date in the quarter up to June 2025.

Related reports

Published by

Organisation
Welsh Government
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