GMC to launch new survey of tens of thousands of UK doctors
The General Medical Council (GMC) is to carry out a comprehensive survey of the UK’s tens of thousands of LE (locally employed) and SAS (specialty, associate specialist, and specialist) doctors.
The survey, which will run in 2026, will be the first the time since 2019 the regulator has asked LE and SAS doctors – skilled practitioners who are not in formal training to become consultants or GPs – about their work, including their access to training and development.
In England and Wales, the only UK countries where the GMC currently has data*, there were more than 38,000 licensed LE doctors in 2024, more than three times the number a decade earlier. SAS doctors totalled around 12,500, a 48% increase compared with 2014.
The 2019 survey revealed that many, in both cohorts, faced challenges in career progression, as well as unfair treatment from colleagues, patients or patients’ families, including rudeness, incivility, belittling and humiliation.
Since that survey, the GMC has strengthened its guidance for all doctors on professional behaviours and speaking up, established stronger relationships with LE and SAS doctor stakeholders, and is improving the data it holds.
"We will want to hear from as many LE and SAS doctors as possible, ensuring their voices are heard."
Charlie Massey
GMC Chief Executive
It has also made access to the specialist register more flexible and evidence-based for doctors who have not completed a UK training programme, benefitting many doctors in LE and SAS roles.
Data from the new survey will help inform a GMC review of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and training. The comprehensive review, the first for more than a decade, will take place over the next five years and will look at the standards, design, outcomes and delivery of doctors’ education, training and career development.
GMC Chief Executive Charlie Massey said:
‘The UK’s medical workforce is changing, with growing numbers in LE and SAS roles. Understanding those doctors’ workplace experiences, and their access to training and development, is crucial to retaining a skilled workforce and, ultimately, to good patient care
‘Our 2019 survey provided a valuable snapshot, but a lot has changed since then. Now is the right time to take the temperature again and look – in detail – at the day-to-day realities for these cohorts, something the GMC is uniquely able to do.
‘We will want to hear from as many LE and SAS doctors as possible, ensuring their voices are heard and making the data we get meaningful, powerful and valuable to everyone working across the UK’s health systems.’
Full details of the GMC’s survey of LE and SAS doctors will be announced in 2026.
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