Information on other practice staff

The following table compares the number of GP practice staff in Scotland for the years 1990 and 2003. Further detail, showing trend data for practice staff is available in excel format . The overall number of practice staff has gradually increased by 48.2% from 1990 to 2003 (7,172 to 10,630), with a 3.8% increase between 2002 and 2003 (10,240 to 10,630). The number of practice nurses has more than doubled since 1990 (see table below), with a 2.8% increase for 2003 compared with 2002 (1,952 to 2,006).

Up until late 2003, NHS board-level counts of the numbers of practice staff (including practice nurses) employed by general medical practitioners were supplied to ISD by NHS boards, as part of the data forms ISD(M)8GMS and ISD(M)8PMS. Since the introduction of the new General Medical Services contract on 1st April 2004, supply of data on practice nurses is no longer mandatory. There is no obligation or direct incentive for practices to submit this information to a national database, and as a consequence ISD has received very little information on practice staff since then.

Number of GP practice staff in post, by staff category ¹

¹ Information regarding categories of practice staff changed more than once during the period 1990-2003 and this may impact on the figures shown in the table.
² Other clinicians employed by the practice, e.g. phlebotomist or counsellor.

Source: ISD(M)8, ISD Scotland

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Related information

Head Count/WTE Practice staff/ Practice nurses trend  (trend 1990 - 2003)
Practice nurse trend, by NHS board (1988 - 2003)