A new analysis reveals that the British public is calling for urgent improvements to the NHS, with only one in five expressing satisfaction with how it is run
The latest British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey published by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund has revealed the current landscape of public satisfaction in the NHS, which has plummeted by 39 percentage points since the months before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This survey, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in September and October 2024, is seen as a gold-standard measure of public attitudes in Britain.
The highest level of dissatisfaction since 1983
The survey found that 59% of people were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ dissatisfied with the NHS in 2024, up from 52% in 2023. This marks the highest level of dissatisfaction since the survey began in 1983.
Furthermore, only 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 happy with the NHS, regardless of age, political affiliation or nation.
Report author Bea Taylor, Fellow at The Nuffield Trust, said: “Just five years after the British public were 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.
“The government says the NHS is broken, and the public agrees. But support for the core principles of the NHS – free at the point of use, available to all and funded by taxation – endures despite the collapse in satisfaction. Harnessing this support and fixing the foundations of the NHS must be central to the government’s forthcoming reform programme.”
Only 11% of people believe the NHS has enough staff
The public is also concerned about NHS staffing and spending, with only 11% agreeing that ‘there is enough staff in the NHS’. Around 69% of the survey participants think the government spends too little or far too little on the NHS, whilst 14% agree that ‘the NHS spends the money it has efficiently’.
If forced to choose, 46% of the public would narrowly opt for increasing taxes and raising NHS spending over keeping them the same (41%).
Despite low satisfaction levels, the public strongly supports the founding principles of the NHS, such as that it should ‘definitely or probably’ be free at the point of use (90%), available to everyone (77%), and funded from taxes (80%). However, the percentage of people saying that the service should ‘definitely’ be available to everyone has decreased from 67% in 2023 to 56% in 2024.
Dan Wellings, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, said: “The latest results lay bare the extent of the problems faced by the NHS and the size of the challenge for the government. While the results are sobering, they should not be surprising. For too many people, the NHS has become difficult to access: how can you be satisfied with a service you can’t get into?
“In 2010, seven out of ten people were satisfied with the NHS – it is now down to only one in five. The scale of the decline over the past few years has been dramatic. The results show that people do not want a different funding model, but they do want the NHS to start working for them again, and they want it to have the staff and the money it needs to ensure that happens. The public is also clear that the NHS needs to get better at spending the money it does get more efficiently.”
NHS dentistry has the lowest dissatisfaction levels
The researchers found a divide between generations and location. Younger age groups are less satisfied with the NHS, whereas, with the 65+ age group, satisfaction increased from 25% to 27% between 2023 and 2024. Across the United Kingdom, satisfaction levels varied, with 72% of people in Wales noting dissatisfaction compared to 59% in England and 60% in Scotland.
Satisfaction with GP services also continued to fall, mirroring the trend over the last few years, with 31% of members of the British public satisfied with GP services, compared with 34% in 2023.
The report also looked at satisfaction within NHS dentistry. The analysis highlighted that confidence has continued to collapse as well. As recently as 2019, this was at 60% but has now fallen to a record low of 20%. Dissatisfaction levels (55%) are the highest for any NHS service asked about.
