Last week, Dr Goran Erfani (Research Fellow, Northumbria University) presented findings from our secondary data analysis workstream, focusing on general practice workforce patterns across the North East of England, at the 70th Society for Social Medicine & Population Health (SSM) Annual Conference & European Congress of Epidemiology (EuroEpi) 2026, at Queen Mary University of London. The conference brought together researchers, clinicians and practitioners across public health, epidemiology, medicine, healthcare services research and policy from all around the world, with delegates from across the UK and Ireland, Scandinavia, the US, Italy, Germany, Kenya, and Iran.
Goran’s presentation, Cluster Analysis of Workforce Workload and Skill Mix in North-East of England General Practices, shared results from our analysis of NHS workforce data across 337 general practices in the North East and North Cumbria as part of our BRIDGE and SIGNAL projects. Using K-means clustering, the research identified three distinct workforce profiles based on a Workload Index and a Skill Mix Index: larger, mixed practices with a strong, balanced workforce (23%), medium-sized practices that are relatively stable for now, but less diverse in skill mix and facing an ageing patient population (53%), and smaller, urban practices facing the highest workload and greatest strain (24%).
These profiles offer a practical, evidence-based typology for targeting healthcare workforce planning – for example, using the well-resourced cluster as a benchmark while directing tailored support towards the most strained practices. The findings reinforce the case for region-specific workforce strategies in the North East, where workforce pressures and health inequalities are especially acute, and the conference itself was a valuable chance to reconnect with the wider public health and epidemiology community and compare notes on similar workforce questions from other regions.
The accepted abstract is now published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. You can find out more about the conference here.
