Annual report 2024

Foreword

The UK medical workforce continues to change, becoming increasingly diverse both in terms of ethnicity and gender.

There are now more ethnic minority doctors on the register than white doctors, linked to large numbers of international graduates joining the workforce since 2016. UK graduates are also increasingly diverse. 60% of the 2023/24 medical school intake across the UK was female. And in 2024, we saw women get close to outnumbering men on the register for the first time, with the tipping point subsequently reached early in 2025. This diversity means it is more important than ever that healthcare leaders foster the supportive and inclusive cultures that enable doctors to provide the best possible care.

The demands on our health services have remained high, taking a toll on the wellbeing of the profession. Doctors report concerning experiences across a range of metrics, including burnout, dissatisfaction, and the ability to provide patients with a sufficient level of care.

As well as being deeply damaging to doctors, these issues undermine the productivity and smooth running of our health services, creating consequent risks to the delivery of safe patient care. Against this changing, and challenging, backdrop, we have played our part in supporting the UK’s health systems to deliver high-quality care for the patients they serve.

In January 2024, the updated version of Good medical practice came into effect. The standards reflect a stronger focus on behaviours and values, recognising the pivotal role of culture and leadership in determining good outcomes for patients. 2024 saw our outreach teams speaking to doctors across the UK about applying the guidance in practice. As well as raising awareness of the updated standards, these sessions helped build relationships and foster trust and confidence within the profession.

At the heart of good culture is inclusion, and in October, we published an update on the equality, diversity and inclusion targets we set ourselves in 2021. We saw how our efforts are bearing fruit, with a reduction in the disproportionality of employer fitness to practise referrals, a narrowing of the attainment gap in specialty training for internationally qualified doctors, and improved representation of ethnic minority colleagues in the GMC’s own workforce. But our analysis also highlighted the scale of the challenge, and the work remaining to achieve sustained systemic and cultural change. We remain committed to playing our role in achieving that change, both through the use of our data and the frontline support we provide through our outreach teams.

At the end of the year, we reached a significant milestone as physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) were brought into regulation for the first time. This important step will help assure both patients and the public that these professionals are appropriately trained, meet the standards that we set and that action can be taken when concerns are raised. It also represents the culmination of years of engagement with stakeholders across the UK. We continue to work closely with the UK Government on its proposed changes to the legislation that governs the way we operate, and look forward to seeing these reforms brought into effect, to the benefit of the public and profession alike.

2024 also saw the introduction of the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA), which tests the knowledge, skills and behaviours of doctors who want to practise in the UK. The MLA sets a common threshold for safe practice across all medical graduates, meaning both UK students and international candidates will take assessments that draw from the same topics for the first time. As well as strengthening patient safety and improving consistency, the MLA will enable course providers to be innovative in their offering to students, whilst maintaining high standards.

The expectations of doctors and those they care for are evolving, and we, and the wider health system, must be alert to those changes. A linear career, in a specific specialty, without breaks, is no longer the default for many, with locally-employed doctors now the fastest-growing doctor group. They, and many others, are ill-served by the rigidity of the current system.

We continue to play a crucial role in overseeing undergraduate education and postgraduate training for doctors, taking action where necessary to make sure that training environments are fit for purpose and delivering against the needs of patients, both today and in the future. Through our Future of education and career development (FutureEd) programme, we are taking a critical look at the way doctors learn, train and practise, and considering what needs to change so that every doctor can reach their potential and enjoy a fulfilling career. This work was the focus of our annual symposium in November, and is a conversation that will continue as we build up to our 2026-30 strategy. 

We are fortunate to benefit from input and insight from outside of the GMC, which gives us a broad view of the profession and the wider landscape in which we work. From the clinical fellows who work within the GMC and share their frontline perspective, to the members of the public whose lived experience is so powerful; their contributions are immensely valuable and shape our work for the better.

As patients’ needs shift, and the workforce charged with meeting them continues to change, collaboration across all parts of the system is more important than ever. We look forward to working with stakeholders in all parts of the UK, as we seek to serve the patients and the public who are at the heart of our work.

2024 at a glance

Get an overview of our year in numbers. Find key stats about our work, including:

• The medical register
• Setting and maintaining standards
• Overseeing medical education and training
• Supporting the people we serve
• Investigating and acting on concerns

Delivering our strategy

Our corporate strategy sets out the four themes that shape all our work, helping us to achieve our ten-year vision.

Get a summary of the key activities we have undertaken in 2024 in support of our strategic goals, including:

• Bringing physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) into regulation, and regulatory reform
• The Medical Licensing Assessment
• The future of education and career development (FutureEd)
• Delivering our core functions
• Supporting professional standards
• Using data, research and insight
• Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Investing in our people

Our work across the UK

Our outreach teams engage directly with doctors, PAs, AAs, students, employers, educators and other stakeholders to support the delivery of good, safe patient care.

The strong local relationships they build allow us to promote good practice and to influence positive, constructive change for doctors, PAs, AAs, patients and other stakeholders in the UK’s healthcare systems. 

In this section of the report, we highlight some of the work the teams have done in collaboration with partners in 2024.

You can find out more about our work in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales by reading our latest national reports.

Corporate social responsibility

We are a socially responsible organisation, constantly looking for new ways to embed sustainability, social impact and ethics into what we do.

Find out how we progressed efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and supported social mobility and widening participation in medical training in the UK.

Financial review and accounts

Read our 2024 financial review and accounts, and Audit and Risk Committee report.