2025 ‘Focus on physicians’ survey closes with over 2000 responses from doctors across the UK

2025 ‘Focus on physicians’ survey closes with over 2000 responses from doctors across the UK

The 2025 ‘Focus on physicians’ survey – a joint project between the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG) and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) – closed earlier this month.

The ‘Focus on physicians’ survey, which aims to gather evidence about the experiences of consultant physicians and specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors working in the medical specialties, asked this year about rota gaps and staffing vacancies, the delivery of clinical care, job planning, educational and clinical supervision, clinical research, wellbeing at work and doctors’ plans for the future. The survey was open from 12 March – 2 June.

There were 2038 respondents to this year’s survey. 92.3% were working as a consultant (substantive or locum) or an SAS doctor in a clinical setting in the UK. 90.3% were employed by the NHS/HSC, 4.4% by a university, 2.1% by a private provider and 1.5% by a hospice.

Most respondents (89.6%) told us their primary work setting was a hospital, with 3.3% saying they worked primarily in a community setting, 2.1% in a university, 2% in a hospice and 1.9% in a clinic. 82.4% worked in England, 10.6% worked in Scotland, 4.7% worked in Wales and 2.2% worked in Northern Ireland.

94.1% were employed as a substantive consultant, 3.2% as a specialty (SAS) doctor and 2.7% as a specialist or associate specialist (SAS) doctor. 

Almost every medical (physician) specialty was represented in the survey findings (the only specialties not represented were aviation and space medicine and medical ophthalmology). Most respondents worked in geriatric medicine (15.1%), respiratory medicine (9%), acute internal medicine (7.2%), endocrinology and/or diabetes mellitus (5.7%), palliative medicine (5.3%), renal medicine (5.3%), clinical genetics (5.2%), rheumatology (5.2%), cardiology (5.1%), gastroenterology (4.9%), stroke medicine (4.8%) and neurology (4.5%). 

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is very grateful to physicians across the UK for taking the time to complete the survey and give their views. The findings of the survey are vital in terms of informing the College’s influencing efforts on workforce policies across the UK.