The National Health Service (NHS) is facing an unprecedented level of public dissatisfaction, with a new survey showing that nearly six in ten people are unhappy with its services.
This is the highest level of dissatisfaction recorded by the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey since it began in 1983.
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The survey encompassed views from 10,000 individuals across England, Wales, and Scotland, and was conducted in the autumn of 2024 by the National Centre for Social Research. It has been released by the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund.
Results indicate that the satisfaction rate for A&E waiting times is only 12%, and 23% for GP waiting times.
Satisfaction with NHS dentistry has sharply declined to 20%, down from 60% in 2019.
Nuffield Trust fellow and report author Bea Taylor 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.”
Despite widespread dissatisfaction with waiting times, the survey suggests that the public still supports the NHS’s founding principles and believes in the need for increased funding and staffing.
Satisfaction remains highest for inpatient and outpatient hospital care, with 32% satisfied compared to 28% dissatisfied.
A significant majority, 69%, believe that the government allocates insufficient funds to the NHS while only 14% believe that the NHS uses its available resources efficiently.
Although there is a notable dissatisfaction with services, a significant majority still upholds the core principles of the NHS. A remarkable 90% believe it should be ‘definitely or probably’ free at the point of use, 77% support its availability to all, and 80% advocate for funding through general taxation.
Despite this, the proportion of individuals asserting that the NHS should ‘definitely’ be accessible to everyone has declined from 67% in 2023 to 56% in 2024.
The King’s Fund senior fellow Dan Wellings said: “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 last 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 are also clear that the NHS needs to get better at spending the money it does get more efficiently.”
The survey results emerge as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently proposed plans to abolish National Health Service (NHS) England. This initiative aims to cut administrative expenses and restore the NHS to direct government oversight.
