Chart shows how Brits have fallen out of love with the NHS: satisfaction with £160bn-a-year service falls to all-time lows amid appalling waiting times for treatment and a GP appointment crisis

By Liam On Mar 27, 2024

Public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to its lowest level ever, due to poor access to GPs and long waiting times for hospital care.

Less than one in four (24 percent) people were satisfied with healthcare in 2023, a decline of 5 percentage points from the previous year alone.

According to the latest findings from the British Social Attitudes Survey, this is the lowest level since records began in 1983.

The survey, of 3,374 people in England, Wales and Scotland, is seen as the gold standard test of how people feel about the NHS.

It shows that more than half (52 percent) are now dissatisfied with the NHS, the highest percentage since the survey began.

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The main reasons for dissatisfaction are waiting times for GP and hospital appointments (71 per cent), followed by staff shortages (54 per cent) and the government not spending enough money on the NHS (47 per cent), despite record investment.

Health think tanks said there had been an “unprecedented downward spiral” in public satisfaction in recent years and warned political leaders to take note of the “depressing” results ahead of the general election.

Satisfaction with the NHS peaked in 2010, when 70 percent of people were satisfied with their healthcare, but has fallen since.

It has suffered a particularly rapid decline of 29 percentage points since 2020, when services were paralyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Strikes by nurses, trainee doctors and consultants have also led to widespread cancellations of operations and appointments over the past year.

What do the latest NHS performance figures show?

The total waiting list shrank by 28,000 to 7.58 million in January.

There were 376 people wait more than two years to begin treatment in late January, up from 282 in December.

The number of people waiting over a year The number of people requiring hospital treatment was 321,394, slightly lower than the 337,450 in the previous month.

About 44,417 people had to wait more than 12 hours in emergency departments in England in February. The figure is lower than the 54,308 recorded in January.

A total of 139,458 people waited at least four hours of admission decision in February, up from 158,721 in January.

Only 70.9 percent of patients were seen within four hours at A&Es last month. NHS standards require 95 percent to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

In February, the average Category one response time – calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries – lasted 8 minutes and 25 seconds. The target time is seven minutes.

It took an average of 36 minutes and 20 seconds for ambulances to respond category two callssuch as burns, epilepsy and strokes. This is more than twice as long as the target of 18 minutes.

Response times for category three calls – such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes – on average 2 hours, 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Nine out of ten ambulances should arrive to these calls within two hours.

Only one in three (34 percent) people were satisfied with GP care in 2023, the lowest level since the start of the survey. About 41 percent were dissatisfied.

Since 2019, satisfaction with GP services has fallen by 34 percentage points, with many patients now facing a scramble for appointments and a struggle to see a GP in person at 8am.

There were also problems with dentistry, with a record low satisfaction of 24 percent and a record high dissatisfaction of 48 percent.

It comes as Brits struggle to find an NHS dentist open to new patients in some areas, requiring people to pull their own teeth at home.

Satisfaction with both inpatient and outpatient hospital services remains at record low levels.

However, support for the basic principles of the NHS remains strong: 91 per cent believe the NHS should be free if people need to use it, 82 per cent agree it should be primarily funded through taxes and 82 per cent say it the NHS should be available to everyone.

The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust are sponsoring the health and care questions in the poll, which is conducted by the National Center for Social Research (NatCen).

Their analysis report states: ‘A decade of tight funding and chronic workforce shortages, followed by a global pandemic, has left the NHS in a perpetual state of crisis.

‘Changing the model of the NHS is not something the public wants – they just want the model they have to work.’

Dan Wellings, senior fellow at the King’s Fund, said: ‘The results are bleak but should not be surprising after a year of strikes, scandals and persistently long waits for care.’

He added: ‘With the healthcare system increasingly unable to meet the expectations and needs of those who depend on it, public satisfaction with the NHS is now in uncharted territory.

“Ahead of the upcoming general election, political leaders should take into account how far satisfaction has fallen with this celebrated public institution.”

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On government priorities and NHS spending, 48 per cent of people thought ministers should ‘raise taxes and spend more on the NHS’, 42 per cent chose ‘keep taxes and spend the same’, and 6 per cent chose ‘cut taxes and spend less’. on the NS’.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘We are fully committed to a faster, simpler and fairer NHS, free when it’s needed. That’s why we’re providing the NHS with record funding of almost £165 billion a year by the end of this Parliament, an increase of 13 percent in real terms compared to 2019.

‘We are making good progress in reducing waiting lists in England, which is one of the Prime Minister’s top priorities. Despite winter pressures and the impact of industrial action, overall NHS waiting lists have fallen for the fourth month in a row and we have delivered on our promise to provide 50 million additional GP appointments months ahead of schedule.

‘There are 50,000 more nurses in the NHS than in 2019 and we have also created the first ever long-term workforce plan for the NHS, supported by more than £2.4 billion, to ensure the health service can train, recruit and retain the staff it needs it will need in the coming years.’