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- By Nick Triggle
- Health correspondent
Image supply, Getty Images
Public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped once more, setting a brand new low recorded by the long-running British Social Attitudes survey.
Just 24% mentioned they had been glad with the NHS in 2023, with ready occasions and employees shortages the most important considerations.
That is 5 proportion factors down on final yr and a drop from the 2010 excessive of 70% satisfaction.
The ballot – the gold-standard measure of the general public’s view of the well being service – has been working since 1983.
More than 3,000 folks had been polled by the National Centre for Social Research throughout England, Wales and Scotland within the autumn.
The findings on the NHS, revealed by the Nuffield Trust and King’s Fund assume tanks, present as soon as once more that efficiency has deteriorated after a brand new document low was seen final yr.
In complete, since 2020, satisfaction has fallen by 29 proportion factors.
Of the core companies, the general public was least glad with A&E and dentistry.
The survey additionally confirmed satisfaction with social care had fallen to 13% – once more the bottom because the survey started.
The main causes for dissatisfaction had been lengthy ready occasions, staffing shortages and lack of funding.
When requested about authorities decisions on tax and spending on the NHS, 48% backed growing taxes and spending extra on the NHS, however 42% most popular to maintain taxes and spending the identical and 6% backed decreasing taxes and spending much less.
Those with the very best incomes had been extra more likely to wish to improve taxes and spend extra.
‘I really feel let down’
Samuel Wilson, 45, who lives in Worthing, West Sussex, has been left unable to work as a result of mobility and ache issues following two hip replacements.
He is now awaiting additional remedy. “I can’t walk very far without excruciating pain,” he says.
“I feel let down. The NHS is there to help you, not make things worse. I feel they have treated me disdainfully. The nurses are polite, I’ve found, and even my surgeon.
“But they don’t seem to be offering the extent of care required. And they know they don’t seem to be offering the extent of care required however attempting to take care of them is like banging your head towards a brick wall.”
Rory Deighton, the NHS Confederation’s acute network director, said the figures “replicate precisely how individuals are feeling”.
“Times are robust, it is laborious for workers and I feel folks recognise that,” he told BBC’s Breakfast programme. “We’ve had a very laborious yr.”
He said the focus for NHS leaders in the next 12 to 24 months would be on improving GP and dental access, and cutting waiting lists.
As well as calling for increased spending on hospitals, GP surgeries and social care, Mr Deighton said there was a “actually sturdy hyperlink” between industrial action and the size of waiting lists for elective treatments.
Jessica Morris, from the Nuffield Trust, said the findings were worrying.
“As we method a basic election, political events ought to be frank and real looking in regards to the challenges forward of them if they’re to show this case round.
“Despite such low levels of satisfaction, the public continue to back the principles underpinning the NHS.
“The public has not fallen out of affection with the concept of a publicly funded, free-at-the-point-of-use NHS, however they’re dropping confidence that it’s going to help them and their family members in the very best method once they want it.”
The Patients Association mentioned it was “dismayed” by the survey results.
And Royal College of Nursing general secretary Prof Pat Cullen said: “Enough is sufficient”.
“Voters should now make NHS and care companies the central challenge of the overall election,” she mentioned.
“An NHS that was as soon as a world-leader is now treating sufferers in corridors, doorways, and retailer cabinets. The established order has develop into insupportable.”
But a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said progress was being made, with some signs that the waiting list was falling, while investment was being made in key areas, such as GPs.
“We are absolutely dedicated to a sooner, easier and fairer NHS, free on the level of want,” he mentioned.
A Scottish government spokesperson said other research showed people in Scotland were more satisfied with the way the NHS was run than this survey suggested.
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