Across England, around 23.4% of full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs are aged over 55 and individual CCGs have up to a third or more of their GP workforce aged over 55.
However, hundreds of GP practices are staffed almost entirely by doctors over the age of 55 - and with evidence suggesting many of these doctors will soon retire, the future of these practices is at significant risk.
One in 10 practices across England are reliant on a GP workforce two thirds or more of which is aged 55 or over. The map below shows which CCG areas have the highest numbers of practices in this category - practices that are 'at risk' from the ageing GP workforce.
Ageing GP workforce
Explore the map and the accompanying chart to find out which areas are most at risk, and to see how your area compares.
GP retirement
Evidence that practices heavily reliant on GPs aged over 55 are at risk is overwhelming - a BMA pensions expert told MPs recently that 55 has become 'the normal age' for doctors to retire.
Meanwhile, numbers of doctors taking early retirement have spiked - around three in five GPs who claimed their NHS pension for the first time in 2020/21 did so on a voluntary early retirement basis - before the standard age of 60.
BMA polling has shown more than a third of GPs plan to retire early after working through the COVID-19 pandemic - which saw practices deliver an unprecedented 367m appointments last year on top of tens of millions of vaccinations.
