ReviewThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners1999
Recruitment and retention of general practitioners in the UK: what are the problems and solutions?
Review in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Addressing the crisis of GP recruitment and retention: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2017Pooled it
- A hole in the bucket? exploring England's retention rates of recently qualified GPs.Human resources for health · 2025Article
- Exploring 'work-life balance' at appraisal and how this links with organisational support.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Article
- Chronic morbidity, deprivation and primary medical care spending in England in 2015-16: a cross-sectional spatial analysis.BMC medicine · 2018Article
- Lost to the NHS: a mixed methods study of why GPs leave practice early in England.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2016Article
- General practitioners' altered preferences for private practice vs. salaried positions: a consequence of proposed policy regulations?BMC health services research · 2015Article
- The prospective effects of workplace violence on physicians' job satisfaction and turnover intentions: the buffering effect of job control.BMC health services research · 2014Article
- Experience of contractual change in UK general practice: a qualitative study of salaried GPs.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2012Article
- Profile of English salaried GPs: labour mobility and practice performance.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2008Article
- Gender shift in realisation of preferred type of GP practice: longitudinal survey over the last 25 years.BMC health services research · 2007Article
- Why do general practitioners from France choose to work in London practices? A qualitative study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2004Article
- Scottish general practitioners' willingness to take part in a post-retirement retention scheme: questionnaire survey.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2004Article
- A case of mural dyslexia.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2002Article
- The physician assistant: would the US model meet the needs of the NHS?BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2001Review
- Doctoring deprived areas.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2001Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recruitment and retention of general practitioners (GPs) has become an issue of major concern in recent years. However, much of the evidence is anecdotal and some commentators continue to question the scale of workforce problems. Hence, there is a need to establish a clear picture of those instabilities (i.e. imbalances between demand and supply) that do exist in the GP labour market in the UK. Based on a review of the published literature, we identify problems that stem from: (i) the changing social composition of the workforce and the fact that a large proportion of qualified GPs are significantly underutilized within traditional career structures; and (ii) the considerable differences in the ability of local areas to match labour demand and supply. We argue that one way to address these problems would be to encourage greater flexibility in a number of areas highlighted in the literature: (i) time commitment across the working day and week; (ii) long-term career paths; (iii) training and education; and (iv) remuneration and contract conditions. Overall, although the evidence suggests that the predicted 'crisis' has not yet occurred in the GP labour market as a whole, there is no room for lack of imagination in planning terms. Workforce planners continue to emphasize national changes to the medical school intake as the means to balance labour demand and supply between the specialities; however, better retention and deployment of existing GP labour would arguably produce more effective supply-side solutions. In this context, current policy and practice developments (e.g. Primary Care Groups and Primary Care Act Pilot Sites) offer a unique learning base upon which to move forward.
Indexed as
Identifiers
10885092PMC1313539What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.