General practice workforce: as at 31 March 2025

The Wales National Workforce Reporting System (WNWRS), supplied and validated by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership is the main source of general practice workforce data used in these statistics.

• On 31 March 2025, there were 1,581 full-time equivalent (FTE) fully qualified GPs providing health care from 370 general practices in Wales.
• The number of fully qualified GPs increased by 40 (2.6%) and the number of general practices decreased by 4 (1.1%) from 31 March 2024.

When broken down by specific GP types there were:

• 1,019 FTE GP partners, an annual increase of 2.4%
• 461 FTE salaried GPs, an annual increase of 16.9%
• 90 FTE GP locums worked in the quarter, an annual decrease of 35.4%
• 10 FTE GP retainers, an annual decrease of 1

Alongside fully qualified GPs, there were:

• 439 FTE GP registrars (trainee GPs), an annual increase of 2.1%
• 1,002 FTE registered nurses, an annual decrease of 3.6%
• 940 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 decrease of 1.5%
• 3,912 FTE administrative or other non-clinical practice staff, an annual decrease of 1.1%

If a contract is not in place between a local health board and a GP 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 and/or GP locums.

On 31 March 2025 there were 24 local health board managed practices, an annual decrease of 1. These practices employed 77 FTE fully qualified GPs and 417 FTE wider practice staff. These staff are included in the total staff counts.

Statistician: Jacob Squires
Email: stats.healthinfo@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099