Number of general practitioners (PP)

Albania

Source: Ministry of Health.

Armenia

Source of data: Republican Research and Information Health Centre and the National Statistic Service
of the Republic of Armenia, Report form of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia ? 17
?Health employment?, http://healthinfo.am/Statistical%20Report.htm, Statistical book, Armenia,
English version (zip) 2009.
Reference period: 31 December.
Deviation from the definition: Data on interns and residents are included in the category ?Other
specialties not elsewhere classified?.

Austria

Source of data: Osterreichische Arztekammer - Vollerhebung / Austrian Medical Chamber - total of
members.
Reference period: December/January (reference day varies).
Coverage:
- includes general practitioners who run a private practice (?Arzte fur Allgemeinmedizin mit
Ordination?);
- excludes interns (\Turnusarzte\").
Deviation from definition:
- Medical interns/residents cannot be separated by specialisation or progress of training.
Break in time series: Before 1995 data include ?Wohnsitzarzte?

Belarus

Source of data: National Statistics Committee of Belarus http://belstat.gov.by/; National Archives
of the Republic of Belarus http://narb.by/
Coverage: Data provided by medical practitioners. Interns are included in the column \Medical
doctors not further classified?.
Reporting period: 31 December.
Break in time series: 2008

Belgium

Source of data: Institut National d'Assurance Maladie Invalidite. ?Rapport Annuel?.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage:
- Head count data.
- Excludes non-practising physicians, retired professionals and professionals working abroad.
Includes professionals of foreign origin.
- General practitioners: Physicians with a minimal volume of patient contacts.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Source: Public Health Institute of FB&H - Annual report health personnel with university degree by
specialization and sex in FB&H
Public Health Institute of Republica Srpska - Annual report health personnel with university degree
by specialization and sex in Republica Srpska

Bulgaria

Source of data: National Statistical Institute, Exhaustive annual survey.
Reference period: 31 December.
Coverage: All GPs (head counts) who worked on a basic labour contract in health establishments.
Residents are included (data refer to the speciality that has been practised). Practices of GPs who
have signed contract with Regional Health Insurance Funds are covered. Paediatricians, who practice
as GPs are included also.
Estimation method: Data on medical specialists refer to the practiced speciality.

Croatia

Source of data:ÿCroatian National Institute of Public Health, Health Manpower Register

Cyprus

Source of data: Statistical Service of Cyprus, Health and Hospital Statistics.
For the years 1985, 1987, 1995 and 2000 figures were obtained from the Census of Doctors, Dentists
and Clinics.
Reference period: 31st December.

Czechia

Czech Republic

Source of data: Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic; Registry of
Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage: Practising GPs for adults and GPs for children and adolescents are counted as General
Practitioners.
Estimation method: Till 2000 only estimation of total number of GPs for children and adolescents
based on split of total number pediatricians.
Break in time series: 2005 (a new legislation on medical professions came into effect in 2004).

Denmark

Data not available.

Estonia

Source of data:
- Annual reports, National Institute for Health Development, Department of Health Statistics.
Reference period: 31st of December.
Coverage:
- The category ?General practitioners? contains ?family doctors? and ?therapists?.
- Medical staff working in research or other areas is not included. The military area has been
included since 2010.
Break in time series: 2005.
- Until 2004 the number of practising physicians was based on their last or main educational
qualification.
- From 2005 the head count distribution is made according to their main branch occupational
activity.

Finland

Data not available. All physicians working in primary care are classified as GP?s regardless of
their specialty. There is no possibility of distinguishing between general practitioners and other
generalist medical practitioners.

France

Source of data: Ministere du Travail, de l?Emploi et de la Sante - Direction de la Recherche, des
Etudes, de l'Evaluation et des Statistiques (DREES), Sous-Direction de l'Observation de la Sante et
de l'Assurance maladie, Bureau des Professions de sante.
- Until 2010 (01/01/2011): Repertoire ADELI (DREES).
- From 2011 (01/01/2012): RPPS (Repertoire partage des professionnels de sante), ASIP-SANTE RPPS.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage:
- Data refer to active physicians.
- Data refer to metropolitan France and D.O.M. (overseas departments).
- GPs and non-specialist practitioners are included in the data. They can be salaried (in hospitals
or other institutions such as nursing homes, etc.), self-employed or both. They may also report
specific skills (e.g. allergology, sports medicine) or practice as homeopath or acupuncturist.
Physicians with a foreign (non-EEA) degree allowed to practice in hospitals and registered at the
French National Medical Council but without a specialty recognised in France are included in these
data.
- Interns and residents are not included.
Deviation from the definition:
- The data refer to active physicians.
- The data do not only include GPs/family doctors.
- Interns and residents are not included.
Break in time series:
- In 2009 (01/01/2010), there is a break in the series for physicians because of a change in the
statistical methodology.
- In 2011 (01/01/2012), there is a second break in the series, because of the change in the data
source (RPPS since 2011).
Note: The new source (RPPS) makes it possible to give the number of practising generalist medical
practitioners: 92360 in 2011 (compared with 101896 active generalist medical practitioners in 2011).

Georgia

Source of data: Data are based on annual statistical reports collected from health establishments to
the Ministry of Health and include both, public and private sectors and also facilities working
under other Ministries, such as Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of
Defence.
Reference period: 31 December 2012
Coverage: The provided data cover all regions except separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Osetia.
Data for those two regions are unavailable.
Deviation from definition: The category of Rural Doctors has been included in this category since
2009.

Germany

Germany

Source of data: German Medical Association, Medical practitioner statistics; special calculation by
the Federal Statistical Office on base of data from the German Medical Association,
http://www.gbe-bund.de or http://www.baek.de.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage:
- Data contain the number of general practitioners who are actively practising medicine in public
and private institutions and provide services directly to patients (head-count data).
- Included are physicians with specialty ?general medicine?, physicians without specialty in the
ambulatory sector and general practitioners (?Praktischer Arzt?).
- Includes interns/residents.

Greece

Source of data: Hygiene Divisions and Sections attached to prefectures, Athens Medical Association
and Pireas Medical Association. Annual Doctors and Dentists survey,
http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/PAGE-themes?p_param=A2103.
Reference period: 31st December.
Deviation from the definition: Data refer to professionally active physicians. Unemployed physicians
are included.

Hungary

Data not available.

Iceland

Source of data:
- 2003 and onwards: The Directorate of Health, The Register of Physicians.
- Until 2002: The Directorate of Health. Data from inpatient care institutions, health centres and
The State Social Security Institute.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage:
- Head count data.
- Includes those physicians who are 70 years old or younger with permanent residence and registered
domicile in Iceland (Icelanders or foreigners).
- Excludes retired professionals and professionals working abroad.
- May include a very small number of non-practising physicians.
- Physicians in training are not included (unless they already have another specialisation) as data
are based on The Register of physicians, and only those who have gained the respected specialty are
registered.
- In cases where a physician has more than one specialty, the counted specialisation is the newest
specialty. Should two specialities be registered on the same day, the one that is more specialised
is included.
Break in time series: Break in series in 2005 due to revision of methodology. The methodology was
altered in 2009 in such a way that registered domicile is now taken into account when counting the
number of physicians, not only permanent residence. Figures for previous years, back to 2005, were
revised accordingly.

Ireland

Source of data:
- 1996 onwards: Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP).
- Up to 1995: General Medical Services Payments.
Reference period: Data do not correspond to the same month each year.
Coverage: The number of General Practitioners is the number of GP's registered with the Irish
College of General Practitioners (ICGP). The ICGP estimate that approx. 90% of GP's in Ireland are
registered with them. Figures exclude physicians overseas and those over 70 years old.
Deviation from the definition: Data refer to physicians licensed to practice.
Break in time series: Prior to 2011, general practitioners in training were not included.

Israel

Israel

Source of data: The data are based on reports from the HMO's and the Physician License Registry
which is maintained by the Medical Professions Division and the Health Information Division in the
Ministry of Health, for which the demographic information is periodically updated from the
Population Registry at the Ministry of Interior. The source of residents' data is the Israeli
Medical Association.
Reference period: End of the year.
Coverage:
- Data are for the number of practising physicians providing services directly to patients.
Data include specialists with family medicine and residents in family medicine who are working in
the HMO's (Health Maintenance Organisations).
Note: The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant
Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the
Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of
international law.

Italy

Source of data: Ministry of Health ? D.G. of Health Information System ? Office of Statistics,
Ministry of Health. Publication: ?Attivita gestionali ed economiche delle ASL e Aziende
ospedaliere?, Annuario Statistico del Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (published annually). Publication
available on the web site of the Ministry of Health.
http://www.salute.gov.it/portale/documentazione/p6_2_8_2.jsp?lingua=italiano.
Reference period: 1st January.
Coverage: Total survey on all general practitioners practising for the National Health System.
General practitioners provide the first level care to all citizens aged 14 and over (consultations,
visits, prescription of medicines, and referrals for laboratory tests or specialist visits).
Physicians in training are excluded.

Latvia

Data not available.

Lithuania

Source of data: Health Information Centre of Institute of Hygiene, data of entire annual survey of
health establishments. Report ?Health Statistics of Lithuania?, available from
http://sic.hi.lt/html/en/hsl.htm.
Predominant area of practice is used as criterion to classify physicians by categories.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage: Data includes family doctors (general practitioners), therapists in primary health care.
Medical doctors (general) are excluded. Up to 2010 residents are excluded. Since 2011 residents are
included in respective category of physicians.
Break in time series:
- 2011: Since year 2011, interns and residents are included in the respective category of physicians
by specialities. In year 2010 and earlier, interns and residents were included in the category
Medical doctors not further defined.

Luxembourg

Source of data: Direction de la Sante - Service des statistiques. Register of doctors and health
professionals. Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage:
- Doctors who do not work in direct contact with patients (laboratories, administration, R&D, etc)
are excluded, and interns are included.

Notes:
- Although in some countries ?general practice? and 'family medicine' may be considered as medical
specialisations, these occupations should always be classified here.
- Offices of general medical practitioners (HP.3.1.1 in SHA 2011) include establishments of doctors
who hold a degree in medicine and are primarily engaged in the independant practice of general
medicine.

Note: The number should be at the end of the calendar year.

Malta

Source of data: Specialist Registers and data from the Post Graduate Training Centre, Mater Dei
Hospital.
Reference period: 31st December.
Note: Accurate figures are only available from end 2008. The predominant area of practice was used
to classify physicians by categories.

Montenegro

Source of data: The source for all data submitted is the Institute of Public Health. Some additional
information can be found in Health Statistical Yearbooks available at http://www.ijzcg.me/
Reference period: December 31st.
Coverage: Only data from the public sector.
The criteria used for the data was the last specialty for which doctors have received registration.
Note: the breakdown was provided for professionally active physicians

Data are presented by specialties but not by working positions (for example our chosen doctor can be
also specialist of occupational medicine, internal medicine etc.).

Netherlands

Source of data:
- 1980-1998: Practising GP's: Netherlands Institute for research of Primary Health Care (NIVEL).
- From 1999 onwards: Data for professionally active and licensed GP's based on BIG register
(register of (para)medical professions) and SSB database (micro-integrated database of Statistics
Netherlands with data from the municipal register, tax register, social security, and business
register).
Doctors in training for GP: KNMG (Royal Dutch Society for the Advancement of Medicine).
Reference period:
- 1980-1998: 1st January year T+1 is used for 31 December year T.
- From 1999 onwards: last Friday before Christmas.
Deviation from the definition:
- Data refer to GP's who:
are licensed to practice with the specialty \general practice\";
live and work in the Netherlands;
for employees: are active in a health- or social care sector or a health-care related sector; or
for self-employed GP's: are economically active (their license requires that they have been
practising ? not necessarily fulltime ? in the past five years).
- List of NACE codes used for health- or social care and healthcare related sectors: NACE v1: 851

North Macedonia

Data for breakdown between General practitioners and Other generalists (non-specialist) medical
practitioners not available.

Norway

Source of data:
- From 2002: Statistics Norway; Register-based statistics on employment of health care personnel.
See http://www.ssb.no/hesospers_en/.
- For the years prior to 2002 the Norwegian Medical Association was the source for this information.
Reference period: 3rd week of November.
Coverage:
Data on general practitioners are based on personnel fulfilling one of the following criteria:
- Occupation as general practitioner
- Practising physicians with a general practice contract.
- Last specialisation in general practice.
- Personnel working in NACE 8621 (general medical practice) and where occupational data are missing.
Break in time series: 2011.
Up until 2010 the number of general practitioners included personnel with a general practice
contract or personnel who have their last specialisation in general practice. From 2011 the number
of general practitioners is also based on occupational data and includes personnel who are
registered occupied in general practice.

Poland

Source of data: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior and Administration, Ministry of National
Defence.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage: Physicians with grade II specialisation, physicians with title of specialist in family
medicine or physicians undergoing training in this specialty.
Note: Grade I and grade II specialisations were granted when the previous system was in force.
Doctors, according to Polish law, could achieve this by September 1998. Obtaining a grade II
specialisation is equivalent to the current title of specialist, but the grade I specialisation is
not equivalent to the title of specialist and has no counterpart in the current system of
specialised training.

Portugal

Source of data: Statistics Portugal and Portuguese Medical Association.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage:
- In Portugal ?General practice and family medicine? is a specialisation.
- Data on General Practitioners include active practising physicians, active but not practising
physicians and inactive physicians.
- Physicians with more than one specialisation, (e.g. General Practice and Pediatrics) will be
counted twice.
- The denomination for the physicians included in this category was/is:
- from 1983-1995: Generalists (Generalistas);
- from 1996 onwards: General and Family Medicine (Medicina Geral e Familiar).
Deviation from the definition:
- Data refer to physicians licensed to practice.
- Some physicians are licensed to practice in more than one specialty. These physicians are
accounted in all specialties they have. Therefore the sum of physicians by categories is higher than
the actual total number of physicians.

Republic of Moldova

Source of data: Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova, National Centre for Health
Management, Annual statistical report N17 ?On staff and cadres of health institutions?.
http://cnms.md/areas/statistics/anyar/.
Reference period: Data as of December 31.
Coverage: Data exclude Transnistria.
Deviation from the definition: Foreign physicians are not included. Interns and residents are not
included.

Romania

Source of data: National Institute of Statistics. Activity of Sanitary Units ? annual survey
perfomed by NIS
Coverage:
Up to 2009 the data refer to ?active?.
Starting with 2010 the data refer to ?practitioners?.
Up to 2008 the data can not be broken down, family medical practictioners and general practitioners
being recorded together.
Data refer to family general practitioners and residents specialising in general practice.

Serbia

Source of data: Institute of Public Health of Serbia, National register on health care human
resources. http://www.batut.org.rs/
Reference period: 31st December
Coverage: Data for Kosovo-Metohija province are not included in the coverage of data for the
Republic of Serbia. Data from health institutions under the other ministries (military services,
prisons, social services) than the Ministry of Health are not included. Data from private health
sector are not included.
Note: Data refer to professionally active physicians.

Slovakia

Data not available.

Slovenia

Source of data: The National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia; National Health
Care Providers Database.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage: The National Health Care Providers Database is a registry with total (100 %) coverage of
health workers.

Spain

Source of data: Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equity. From Primary Care Information System
(SIAP). http://www.msssi.gob.es/estadEstudios/estadisticas/estadisticas/estMinisterio/siap.htm.
Reference period: 31st December.
Coverage:
- Data include number of persons who work in health care centres of National Health System at the
end of the calendar year. Data for private sector are not available.
- Included: Interns and residents who are training to become GPs (3 years is required to qualify as
GP; before 2005/2006, it used to be 4 years).

Sweden

Source of data: National Board of Health and Welfare, National Planning Support (NPS) register.
Reference period: 1st November.
Coverage:
- General practitioners include all physicians employed within the health-care sector whose latest
specialty is in family medicine.
- 100 per cent coverage.

Switzerland

Data not available.

Türkiye

Source of data:
- From 2000 onwards: General Directorate for Health Services, Ministry of Health.
- Up to 1999: Health Statistics Yearbook - Ministry of Health.
Coverage:
- Up to 1999: Data includes physicians working in public or university administration. Medical
residents are included among GPs. General Practitioners are physicians without any specialty
education.
- From 2000 to 2005: Number of GPs only (MoH, university, and private sector are included). Medical
residents are not included, which explains the sharp decrease in data between 1999 and 2000.
-From 2006 onwards: Data includes MoH, university, private sector and others (other public
establishments and local administrations).
- Since 2006, the number of general practitioners in Turkey contains family physicians, GPs and
family medicine residents.
- A GP is a general practitioner in medicine who has had 6-year basic medical education. GPs are
physicians without any specialty education.
- A Family Physician (Doctor) is a medical professional who received 3-year Family Medicine
residency training after graduation from a 6-year medical faculty.
- A Family Medicine Resident (Assistant) is a medical professional who is undergoing a 3-year Family
Medicine residency training after graduation from a 6-year medical faculty.
- GPs and family physician specialists acting as managers are also included.
Deviation from the definition:
- Data refer to professionally active physicians.
- Data correspond to all generalist medical practitioners.
Break in time series: 2000 and 2006.

Turkmenistan

Source of data: Report from of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan. ? 17
?Health Source of data: Report form of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan.
? 17 ?Health employment?
Reference period: 31 December.
Coverage: Includes data from institutions under the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of
Turkmenistan, data from other Ministries or sectors not included.

Ukraine

Source: Centre of Health Statistics, Ministry of Health.
Coverage: Since 2009, data includes public and private sector.

United Kingdom

Source of data:
- England: Health & Social Care Information Centre: http://www.hscic.gov.uk and
http://www.hscic.gov.uk.
- Scotland: Information Services Division, Scottish Workforce Information Standard System.
- Wales: Welsh Assembly Government: http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/theme/health/?lang=en.
- Northern Ireland: General Practitioners from Medlist, Business Services Organisation, General
Medicine hospital doctors from Human Resource Management System, Department of Health, Social
Services & Public Safety.
Reference period: Data as at 30th September.
Coverage:
- Does not include private sector.
- Scotland: Headcount includes Performer, Performer Salaried, Performer Registrar (GPs in training)
and Performer Retainees.
- Northern Ireland: Includes estimates of General Medicine doctors practising in hospitals,
excluding Hospital/Medical practitioner grade, Research Fellows and Clinical Assistants. The UK
equivalent of interns and residents, i.e. foundation doctors and registrars, will be included in
this data.
Deviation from the definition:
- Data include general practitioners and other generalists/non-specialists.
- Scotland: The sum of GPs and specialists is greater than the total number of physicians due to
some staff holding more than one post. There is currently no conventional way of assigning such
staff to one group only.
Estimation method:
- Northern Ireland: Hospital doctors with a department code of ?General Medicine? have now been
included and figures from 2000 have been revised in 2011.
- Wales: 2012 - Welsh data were not available in time for this collection, so the previous year?s
figure was used instead. This will be updated with the correct data in next year?s collection.