Total contacts by staff discipline

The chart and table below show the estimated total numbers of face-to-face patient contacts for each staff discipline during each of the four financial years 2003/04 to 2006/07. Please note that district nurse and health visitor data are available from 2003/04 to 2005/06 only and that these data are no longer collected as part of PTI (this is explained in detail in the Note of Revisions).

GP and practice nurses together accounted for an estimated 23.7 million face to face contacts with patients in 2006/07.  Since 2003/04 the total number of GP/practice nurse contacts appears to have increased by roughly 400,000 each year.

The 23.7 million total for 2006/07 breaks down to about 16.0 million contacts for GPs and 7.7 million contacts for practice nurses. Whereas GP contact numbers appeared to decrease slightly between 2003/04 and 2005/06 (from 16.0 million to 15.7 million), by 2006/07 they were back up to the same level as in 2003/04.   In contrast, the number of practice nurse contacts has been rising continuously over the four years for which these data have been collected (from 6.5 million in 2003/04 to 7.7 million in 2006/07), although the rise between 2005/06 and 2006/07 was not as large as in previous years.

Additionally, district nurses and health visitors between them have recorded over 5 million contacts with practice patients in each year for which data were available.  The lower number of contacts relative to GPs and practice nurses may in part reflect the degree of travelling involved in district nurse and health visitor roles as well as difficulties involved for these disciplines in recording data for PTI.

Estimated number of patient contacts (millions), by staff discipline*;
Financial years 2003/04 to 2006/07 ^1,2

* Health visitor and district nurse data are not available for the financial year 2006/07
¹ Based on 45, 44, 44 and 45 PTI practices that submitted complete PTI data for the years ending 31 March 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively. Figures are standardised by age, gender and deprivation and take into account the slight under-recording found in the formal PTI Quality Assurance cycle.
² Population source: Community Health Index (CHI) record, as at 30 September 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Note: Following a substantial review of PTI data and subsequent revisions to the methodology for all PTI analyses, direct comparisons with figures produced prior to 27th March 2007 are not valid.  See the Note of Revisions for further information.

Source: Practice Team Information (PTI), ISD Scotland (last updated 25 March 2008)

Related information:
Excel version of this chart and table  (39KB)
Contact rates by staff discipline, by practice