Drive to boost medical workforce numbers continues to stall

Medical workforce numbers in England are not seeing sustained increases despite ongoing attempts by the government to boost staffing in the NHS, latest figures have shown.

There were 35 991 full time equivalent (FTE) GPs working in England (from a head count of 45 303 doctors) at the end of November last year, NHS Digital reported.1 This represented a drop of 127 doctors from the FTE number at the end of October 2021 and a fall of 153 from a head count of 45 456.

Earlier in 2021 some GP numbers had increased, with 1265 (3.6%) more FTE GPs since the end of June, …