The state of medical education and practice in the UK

How is the make-up of the medical workforce changing?

We look at age, gender and ethnicity in this chapter. We also reflect why 2017 has seen an increase in the number of licensed doctors after a steady period. 

How have profiles of specialties changed since 2011? We look at those which have grown and shrunk. We also examine the specialties which have a greater reliance on older doctors and non-UK graduates. And analyse the fall in doctors coming to the UK from many regions of the world.

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How is the population of medical students and doctors in training changing?

We look at the trends between 2012 and 2017. We also examine gender in specialty training and doctors in full-time training.

There was a 116.6% increase in doctors on the emergency medicine training programme between 2012 and 2017 and an 8.8% increase in GP trainees. Several training programmes have seen a reduction in the number of doctors in training. These include psychiatry (-8.8%), pathology (-8.4%) and core training (-8.1%).

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How many complaints did we receive and resolve in 2016?

In 2016 the number of complaints was similar to 2015, falling by just 1%. This is 10% higher than in 2011, but shows that the annual fall in complaints each year since 2013 is continuing.

The proportion of complaints which are fully investigated has fallen from 33% in 2013 to 18% in 2016. We look at how changes in our complaint handling processes might have contributed to this fall.

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Are some doctors more at risk at getting complaints than others?

A relatively small number of doctors receive complaints each year. The equivalent of 3% of doctors between 2012 and 2016. But we know some groups of doctors have a higher rate of complaints and investigations. Our data shows:

• GPs are more likely to get complaints over any other type of doctor (17% received a complaint between 2012 and 2016).
• Occupational medicine (19%) and psychiatry (18%) are the specialists most likely to get complaints.
• Doctors not on the GP or Specialist Register or in training are considerably more likely to reach the threshold for a GMC investigation.
• Male doctors and doctors who graduated outside of the UK are more likely to receive a sanction or a warning?

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How is the medical workforce deployed and distributed across the UK?

What changes have occurred from 2012 to 2017 at a regional level? We found that most differences between the countries of the UK were relatively small. There were far more similarities than differences, but there were some variations.

• In Scotland, we find there are more GPs per head of population than any other country.
• In Wales, we find the population of doctors is older than the rest of the country.
• In Northern Ireland, we find the lowest proportion of non-UK graduate and BME doctors.
• In England, we find it's very close to the UK average in all areas due to its size (84% of UK licensed doctors are in England). In England’s case we look variations between significant regions.

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Access data on the register and medical education from 2012 to 2017 and fitness to practise for 2011 to 2016.

They provide the source information used to develop many parts of this year’s report.