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Publication - Corporate report

Future Medical Workforce Project: phase 1 report

Published
11 December 2025
From
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, +1 more … Chief Medical Officer
Directorate
Health Workforce Directorate
Topic
Health and social care
ISBN
9781806435166

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.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Who are our doctors?

According to General Medical Council (GMC) data, there were, 24,368 licensed doctors working in Scotland in 2024[9]. Total headcount for doctors working in NHS Scotland as of December 2024 is 17246 (excluding locums).[10]

Plain text for this infographic can be found below.

From our NHS Scotland data we understand that:

  • 6727 are consultants[11]
  • 4582 are GPs[12]
  • 1205 are SAS/Specialist
  • 7189 are resident doctors
  • 410 Full Time Equivalent Clinical Academics[13]
  • 6761 are studying medicine at Scottish Medical Schools
  • 1000-2000 are locally employed doctors(LEDs)[14]

Contact

Email: futuremedicalworkforce@gov.scot

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