General Medical Services for Northern Ireland, Quarterly Series to Q4 2024/25

Key Facts

Key variable	This quarter	Change since last quarter (%)	Change since last year (%)
Registered patients	2,066,970	0.1	0.6
GP headcount	1,468	1.3	1.0
GP practices	305	-0.7	-2.2
Registrations (new + transfers)	22,483	-10.4	-1.6
Registrations per practice	73	-11.0	0.0

Quarterly Series Tables

Download the quarterly general medical services statistics by clicking on the button below. This quarterly series is a subset of the annual information with data provided for selected key tables relating to the following topics:

GP Practice counts by Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust), Local Government District and GP Federation
Average number of Registered Patients per GP Practice by Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust), Local Government District and GP Federation
GP headcounts by Gender and Age and Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust)
Average number of GPs (headcount) per GP Practice by Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust), Local Government District and GP Federation
GP Registered Patient counts by Gender and Age, Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust), Local Government District, GP Federation and GP Practice
Counts of Patients registering for the first time in Northern Ireland and those transferring between Northern Ireland GP Practices

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Quarterly data: 181KB

Trend Charts

1.1 Number of GP practices

Figure 1.1a: Number of GP practices in NI by financial quarter

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Figure 1.1a.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.1a.XLSX (8kB)

Figure 1.1b: Number of GP practices by financial quarter and Local Commissioning Group

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Figure 1.1b.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.1b.XLSX (8kB)

1.2 Number of GPs (Headcount)

Figure 1.2: Number of GPs by gender and financial quarter

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Figure 1.2.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.2.XLSX (8kB)

1.3 Number of Registered Patients

Note that figures for all previous quarters (up to Q3 2024/25) have been revised - see note in User Guidance.

Figure 1.3: Number of registered patients by gender and financial quarter [R]

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Figure 1.3.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.3.XLSX (8kB)

1.4 Number of Patient Registrations

Figure 1.4: Number of patient registrations by type and financial quarter

Total refers to all patient registrations which comprises new registrations and transfers from another practice or within a practice.

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Figure 1.4.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.4.XLSX (8kB)

User Guidance

GP Practices vary in size in terms of registered patients, total number of GPs working at each practice and working patterns of GPs within the practice. GP Practices may have surgeries on more than one site.

General Practitioners (GPs) must be registered on the Medical Performers List to work in a GP Practice. Figures presented for GPs are headcount by individual contract and do not reflect different working patterns individual GPs may operate nor any changes in such patterns across time.

Registered Patients is the count of individuals with a live medical registration at a Northern Ireland GP Practice. Patient Registrations refer to the count of individuals registering at a Northern Ireland (NI) GP Practice and figures presented include all first time in NI registrations (new) plus patients moving from another NI GP Practice or to a different GP within a practice (transfer).

Data Revision

Gender is as recorded on the GP systems. It may be self-reported and is not available for some cases. In the database used for previous reports, patients with a missing gender were recorded as female in order to correspond with the administrative payment classification. This anomaly has been corrected in the current report, meaning that figures for registered patients for previous years have been revised. While the number of male registered patients remains unchanged from previous reports, the number of female patients was overstated.

At the overall level, the number of patients with missing gender ranged from 174 in Q1 2017/18 to 651 in Q3 2024/25, meaning the total number of female patients was overstated by between 0.02% and 0.06%.

Figures incorporating revisions are denoted [R].

About this publication

The General Medical Services Statistics for Northern Ireland 2019/20 to 2024/25 annual reports contain high-level information on Primary Care services in Northern Ireland with comparisons against previous years. Annual data is supplemented by annex tables providing more detailed information with year-on-year comparisons. The Annual reports and accompanying tables are available here.

This quarterly series is a subset of the annual information, with data provided for certain key tables. Not all tables presented in the annual report have been replicated quarterly, as in many cases there is not much change in the figures from quarter to quarter. For example, certain analysis such as proximity to services, do not change much on a quarterly basis. Additional tables presenting data on the average number of GPs per practice and practice list sizes have been included in this quarterly series. This publication is in HTML format, as was introduced for the 2022/23 Annual report, and includes interactive graphics and the ability to automatically download the data presented in the charts.

This is an Accredited Official Statistics Publication

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 – see here for further explanation of this terminology. These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and received formal accreditation on 11th May 2022 (see OSR Compliance Report). As such they comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We have developed a series of statements to demonstrate how we meet the Code in our everyday work. These cover our independence, data quality procedures, how we make our statistics accessible whilst protecting your data, engage with you to meet your needs and, when things go wrong, how we make corrections or, should our services fall below the required standard, how you can make a complaint. All of this information is included in our Statistics Charter.

Since accreditation by the OSR, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements:

• On 28th June 2022 a new suite of tables was published detailing the number of registered patients at each GP Practice in NI broken down by age and gender. These tables are now available for 2012 to 2025.

• Key facts and charts were first introduced to the General Medical Services quarterly series for Q2 2022/23, published on 10th November 2022.

• On 28th March 2023 a pilot User Engagement showcase event was held to advise users of the current capabilities and future developments of the statistics and obtain feedback from users.

• On 8th June 2023 the Annual General Medical Services Statistics were published in HTML format for the first time using an innovative methodology termed a Reproducible Analytical Pipeline (RAP). This should greatly increase the efficiency of production in future, improve reproducibility of the figures and enhance user experience due to the interactive nature of the content.

• On 10th August 2023, the General Medical Services quarterly series tables were published with an accompanying HTML Key Facts report. This new format contains interactive graphics and the ability to automatically download the data presented in the charts.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. They set the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards (contact the responsible statistician listed at beginning of this publication). Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website here.

Data Quality Summary

Figures presented for GPs refer to Unrestricted Principals or Equivalents (UPEs), Salaried GPs and Retainers and do not include Locums. GP numbers are based on headcount and do not therefore reflect changes in working patterns. GP Practice characteristics vary in terms of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) number of GPs assigned to a practice, number of sites a practice operates from, and number of patients registered to a practice.

The count of registered patients is based on live registrations at the end of each quarter. There may be a lag between a patient presenting themselves at a GP Practice and completion of registration. This lag may be greater for patients who have to provide additional documentation as proof of entitlement to services. Similarly for deductions, there may be a lag in removing individuals from the index of registered patients.

There are differences between the figures for GP Registered Patients and residential population. At March 2023, the number of individuals on the index of registered patients was 6.3% higher than the 2023 Northern Ireland mid-year population estimate. This discrepancy can arise from a number of factors, for example, time lags in removing patients from GP lists following death or emigration, Frontier Workers registered with a Northern Ireland GP, or registered patients not completing the 2021 Census.

In cases where a GP Practice is split over more than one site it is only counted as one practice and data presented are based on the Primary Practice.

Further details relating to Data Quality are provided here in the Background Quality Report and the FPS Quality Assurance of Administrative Data Report.

Feedback

Feedback is welcome and if you have requirements for further quarterly breakdowns please email BSO_PrimaryCare.Statistics@hscni.net

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