Future Medical Workforce Project: phase 1 report
The future medical workforce phase 1 report follows an extensive exploratory process to understand the challenges and opportunities for Scotland’s medical workforce as we look ahead to the next 15 to 20 years.
Footnotes
1 To support this assessment, a call for evidence was launched in August 2025 inviting contributions from Health & Social Care professionals, Academic Institutions, Innovation Networks and Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties. More details of these responses can be found in Annex A.
2 The term ‘medical workforce’ is used throughout to refer only to doctors.
3 Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. “Using thematic analysis in psychology.” Qualitative research in psychology 3.2 (2006): 77-101.
4 GMC - The state of medical education and practice in the UK: workforce report 2025
5 Please note that the data used to inform this section comes from multiple sources, as such some data sources classify doctors in different ways and therefore these figures are not comparable (or additive) across data sources.
6 Realistic Medicine is an approach to healthcare that aims to put the patient at the centre of decisions made about their care. Shared decision making and a personalised approach to care are key elements of practising Realistic Medicine. It also aims to reduce harm, waste and unwarranted variation, whilst acknowledging and managing the inherent risks associated with all healthcare, and championing innovation and improvement.
7 Interface models are collaborative approaches to deliver healthcare spanning across services, such as between primary and secondary care settings.
8 Controlled subjects are dentistry, medicine, midwifery, nursing, optometry and paramedicine
9 Primary medical qualification is where a doctor has received their first medical degree.
10 WTE for employment is derived from Workforce Survey for GPs General Practice Workforce Survey 2025 | Turas Data Intelligence. Note that GP headcount will not match publication data exactly (see Annex). In addition, the way data is processed is different for publication vs modelling e.g. age is required for employment forecast but not for publication so latter will include anyone with a missing age. Impact of this is small.
11 WTE for employment is derived from official statistics for consultants 02 September 2025 Workforce | Turas Data Intelligence
12 Intake targets for the controlled subject of Medicine in universities for academic year 2019-20
13 University Intake Targets for Medicine AY 2025-26
14 Note that the WTE of the workforce has been held constant. Further work is required to look at whether doctors who work LTFT when training will work similar patterns when trained and what impacts this may have for the WTE of the workforce.