The latest British Social Attitudes survey of the NHS finds growing dissatisfaction with how the NHS is run and unhappiness about wait times.
The British public remains unhappy with the NHS with only one in five respondents to a survey saying that they were satisfied with how it is run. This is the highest level of dissatisfaction with the health service since the survey began in 1983.
The latest British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey published by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund shows that satisfaction has plummeted by 39 percentage points since the months before the pandemic.
The survey said that just 12% of people were satisfied with A&E waiting times and 23% with GP waiting times. People are unhappy about waiting times even if they are satisfied with the NHS overall, regardless of age, political affiliation or nation.
“Just five years after the British public was called on to ‘Protect the NHS’ at the start of the pandemic, these findings reveal just how dismayed they are about the state of the NHS today. We found that every group in Britain is dissatisfied with access to vital services such as A&E and GP appointments,” said report author and fellow at The Nuffield Trust Bea Taylor.
Of little surprise
NHS staffing and spending are also worrying the public with only 11% agreeing that “there are enough staff in the NHS these days”. A strong majority (69%) said the government spends too little or far too little on the NHS and only 14% thought that the NHS spends the money it has efficiently.
If forced to choose, the public would narrowly opt for increasing taxes and raising NHS spending (46%) over keeping them the same (41%).
Only 8% said that they would prefer tax reductions and lower NHS spending.
Despite low satisfaction with services, there remains strong majority support for the founding principles of the NHS: that it should be free at the point of use (90%), available to everyone (77%), and funded by general taxation (80%).
The NHS Confederation, the membership organisation that brings together, supports and speaks for the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, was nor surprised by the findings.
“While these findings will be a blow to those working in the NHS, unfortunately they are of little surprise given the survey was conducted at a time when the new government was communicating how broken the NHS was and when waiting lists were so high,” said Layla McCay, policy director at the NHS Confederation in response to the survey.
The most recent BSA survey was carried out between 16 September and 27 October 2024. It asked a nationally representative sample of 2,945 people across England, Scotland and Wales about their satisfaction with the NHS and adult social care services overall, and 933 people about their satisfaction with specific NHS services, as well as their views on NHS priorities, principles and funding.
