Practices continued to struggle to recruit enough GPs up to the end of last year – but expanded other staff significantly, according to new figures.

In December the number of full-time equivalent qualified GP posts filled across England fell by 593 compared with 2017, a 2% reduction in GP working hours.

Much of this resulted from doctors switching to part-time working or reducing hours – as the total number of qualified GPs fell by 184 to 38,383 in the course of last year, according to the NHS Digital figures.

There was some compensation for the reduction in doctor hours through the increase in the number of GPs in training. The number of GP registrars increased by 10%, reaching 6,022.

There were also signs of success of the strategy of employing other kinds of clinical staff, such as pharmacists. Some 724 more people were employed as direct patient care staff, a 3.9% increase on 2017. This allowed for a 6.6% increase in hours worked by these staff.

Practice nurse numbers increased by 313 – 1.3% – while the number of administrative and non-clinical staff increased by 1.1%, reaching nearly 95,000. This enabled a 2.2% increase in hours worked by non-clinical and administrative staff.