Doctor-population ratio grows in UK but is still short of that in France and Germany

doi:10.1136/bmj.39489.437801.C2

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Susan Mayor

¹London

The number of doctors in the United Kingdom grew more quickly than in other European countries in the first five years of this century, but the ratio of doctors to the population still remains lower than in many of them.

The ratio rose from two doctors per 1000 people in 2000-1 to 2.4 in 2005-6, but it was still only two thirds the ratio in France, Germany, or Italy.

The figures, published by the Office of Health Economics, also show that the total number of inpatients and patients treated as day cases in NHS hospitals in the UK grew by more than 15% in the same five years. The number was 17.1 million in 2005-6, …