The General Medical Council (GMC) has found that there are now more doctors from an ethnic minority background in the NHS than white doctors.
In its annual workforce report, the GMC said: “It is imperative that any forms of discrimination or unfairness in doctors’ working lives are uncovered, confronted, and removed to ensure all doctors are able to reach their full potential. All parties have a role to play in this.”
The report also highlighted a shift towards gender parity in the medical workforce. Women made up 49 per cent of licensed doctors in 2023, and the GMC predicted that women would “become majority-female soon,” noting that 60 per cent of new medical students are women, reported The Times.
The proportion of female doctors has steadily increased over the last decade, rising from 44 per cent in 2013.
“The gradual shift towards gender parity in the doctor workforce has continued, although this trend has slowed in recent years,” the GMC stated. In 2023, 52 per cent of doctors joining the register were women, while 54 per cent of those leaving were men.
The GMC also revealed that the number of licensed doctors has grown at the fastest rate since records began in 2011, reaching 313,829 in 2023, up from 260,000 in 2019.
This growth has been driven by an influx of international doctors taking locally employed roles. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of locally employed doctors increased by 75 per cent, from 21,000 to 36,831, the newspaper reported quoting the report.
Charlie Massey, GMC chief executive, said: “Locally employed doctors have a lot to offer our health services. But too often they find themselves in roles without proper access to the education and training they need to develop their skills.”
The GMC warned that while the proportion of doctors leaving the profession remains stable at 4 per cent, “there are signs more doctors intend to leave in the future or reduce their working hours.”
