Anaesthetic Workforce Census 2025: Key Interim Findings

Published: 29/10/2025

The RCoA’s Key Interim Findings report provides advanced sight of the key emerging results from the 2025 Census. Conducted every five years, the RCoA Census provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the anaesthetic workforce across the UK.  

The interim results reveal that strengthening the anaesthetic workforce is essential to increase the rate of elective activity, reduce NHS waiting lists, and provide the critical care that patients need. Although anaesthetist numbers have grown since the last Census in 2020, the shortfall has grown even more.  

Download the Anaesthetic Workforce Census 2025: Key Interim Findings below
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Interim headline findings 

Headcount numbers 

  • Across the UK, there are an estimated 11,874 consultant and Specialist, Associate Specialist, and Specialty (SAS) doctors currently working in anaesthesia, an increase of 17% since the last RCoA Census in 2020. 
  • There are an estimated 4,999 Anaesthetists in Training (AiTs) and 2,150 Locally Employed Doctors (LEDs). 
  • An estimated 232 qualified anaesthesia associates (AAs) are in post. There are 28 Student AAs, all in their second year and close to graduation, but there are no first year AAs.  

Shortfalls 

  • Current numbers are still well below what is needed.  
  • Across the UK, there is a predicted shortage of 2,147 consultant and SAS anaesthetists, 15% what is needed to meet demand.  
  • This shortfall has grown from 1,483 in 2020 (13%), underlining the growing scale of the workforce challenge.  

Additional training capacity 

  • There is capacity to train an extra 1,358 AiTs in total, spread across all training years.  
  • This breaks down as space for 384 additional AiTs who could start per year (178 at CT1-3 level and 206 at ST4-7+ level) if government funding were made available.  

Impact of shortages 

  • Over four in ten (43%) clinical leaders said elective surgery is delayed on a daily or weekly basis due to anaesthetic workforce shortages. Only 11% report no delays.  
  • Boosting anaesthetist numbers is the most common factor identified by clinical leaders to increase the rate of elective surgery, cited by 68% of respondents. 

Staff wellbeing 

  • Anaesthetic staff report an average score of 7 out of 10 on a 0 -10 life satisfaction scale, below the UK population average of 7.5.  
  • Among anaesthetic staff, LEDs report the lowest scores at 6.1 out of 10.  
  • The biggest areas of dissatisfaction with respondents’ working lives were pension taxation and IT systems, with 59% and 61% respondents respectively expressing dissatisfaction in the wider anaesthetic workforce survey.