General practice workforce: as at 31 March 2026

From 30 September 2025, general practice workforce data are sourced from the Primary Care Workforce Intelligence System. This supersedes the Wales National Workforce Reporting System that had been the data source since 2020. 

As there are seasonal recruitment patterns, comparisons over time should only be made with the same reference dates in previous years. Extensive validation work has shown that Primary Care Workforce Intelligence System data are comparable with Wales National Workforce Reporting System data. 

The Primary Care Workforce Intelligence System is maintained by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership. 

• On 31 March 2026, there were 1,635 full-time equivalent (FTE) fully qualified GPs providing health care from 368 general practices in Wales.
• The number of fully qualified GPs increased by 55 (3.5%) and the number of general practices decreased by 2 (0.5%) from 31 March 2025.

When broken down by specific GP types there were:

• 976 FTE GP partners, an annual decrease of 4.2%
• 509 FTE salaried GPs, an annual increase of 10.4%
• 139 FTE GP locums who worked in the quarter, an annual increase of 53.2%
• 11 FTE GP retainers, an annual decrease of 1

Alongside fully qualified GPs, there were:

• 431 FTE GP registrars (trainee GPs), an annual decrease of 1.7%
• 962 FTE registered nurses, an annual decrease of 4.0%
• 964 FTE direct patient care staff (staff who are not GPs or nurses but deliver health services to patients, such as health care assistants, dispensers and pharmacists), an annual increase of 2.5%
• 3,932 FTE administrative or other non-clinical practice staff, an annual increase of 0.5%

If a contract is not in place between a local health board and a partner, the health board can directly manage a general practice. The health board directly employs staff, and the practices are usually led by salaried GPs or GP locums.

• On 31 March 2026, there were 24 local health board managed practices, the same as the same period in the previous year. These practices employed 117 FTE fully qualified GPs and 408 FTE wider practice staff. These staff are included in the total staff counts.

These statistics refer to the workforce of general practices operating under the General Medical Services (GMS) contract within the NHS. It does not include any data from private practices. 

Further information on data collection processes and statistical quality is available in the quality report.

NHS Workforce and Primary Care Statistics
Email: stats.healthinfo@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099