Public Satisfaction With NHS Plummets to All-Time Low as Majority Say They Are Dissatisfied
Public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to the lowest level on record amid poor access to GPs and long waits for hospital care, particularly since the pandemic. The Mail has more.
Fewer than one in four (24%) people were happy with the health service in 2023, down five percentage points on the previous year alone.
It is the lowest level since records began in 1983, according to latest findings from the British Social Attitudes Survey.
The study, of 3,374 people in England, Wales and Scotland, is seen as the gold-standard test of how people feel about the NHS.
It reveals more than half (52%) are now dissatisfied with the NHS, the highest proportion since the survey began.
The main reasons for dissatisfaction are waiting times for GP and hospital appointments (71%), followed by staff shortages (54%) and the Government not spending enough money on the NHS (47%), despite record investment.
Health think tanks said there had been an “unprecedented downward spiral” in public satisfaction in recent years and warned political leaders should take note of the “depressing” results ahead of the General Election.
Satisfaction with the NHS peaked in 2010, when 70% of people were happy with the health service but it has since fallen.
It has suffered a particularly rapid decline of 29 percentage points since 2020, when services were crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But will the public ever allow politicians to replace the NHS with a European-style social insurance model that actually works? Or is still too sacred even now?
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I’ll put it as simply as possible. I’ve worked since 2001 as a Paramedic and seen it all unfold. Everything working reasonably until 2004. In 2004 the GP pay award doubled their wages overnight from 50K to 100K. GP’s then took logical decision that working full time was now not worth it and so they all went part time. Now 9/10 work part time and no one can see a GP. The excess demand simply reverted to calling Ambulances or going straight to the hospital instead. Now 999 calls, which used to be a trickle, are now incessant 24/7 going to jobs that the GP’s refuse to do. NHS111 is a disaster, you only need to cough down the phone and they send an Ambulance. The only place you can now be guaranteed of finding a GP these days is at your local golf course. And that’s why the Ambulance service is queuing up in the carparks and the hospitals are groaning at the seams, with wasp stings and runny noses. The imaginary Covid virus was the last straw. The ONLY solution left is to charge for GP appointments, Ambulances and A&E. That will deter the time wasters and free… Read more »
There’s a further aspect to the pay issue. The effective tax rate is 60% between 100K and 125K, as the government claws back the personal allowance in that band. Those pay increases of which you speak would have placed a much larger group of GPs exactly in that band. Net of tax, moving to a 4 day week only costs you 10K a year. A strong incentive and one I’ve pondered taking advantage of myself (I’m not a GP!)
Yes, but the whole GP system is stupid. If my foot hurts why would I go to a generalist first?
I have some experience of the system in Korea, and you just go to a specialist immediately of your own accord. I didn’t even have insurance and I turned up at a clinic without booking, saw a doctor, had two scans, a follow up appointment, ultimately a prescription, all in one afternoon and for about £100 in total.
‘….will the public ever allow politicians to replace the NHS with a European-style social insurance model that actually works?’
As we have seen 2020-2022, the public will allow politicians to do whatever they like.
The question really should be: will the public sector, in particular Whitehall, ever allow it?
And the answer is, quite clearly, a resounding no.
Socialist fascism:
‘Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal will of man as a historic entity.
It is opposed to classical liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism and exhausted its historical function when the State became the expression of the conscience and will of the people.
Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts.’
Mussolini 1932
Brilliant piece of writing by star journalist, Madeline Grant, in the DT today about the simpering fool running London:
‘The mayor’s besetting sins are egotism and sweating the small stuff while the great intractable problems go unanswered…..mirrored in the gulf between what the police and local government do clamp down on…..lax on many crimes, yet insanely prohibitive on things like parking tickets and fines. Drive down the wrong street by mistake – £130……Be part of a gang slashing tyres – how cute!’
That sums up so much in Britain today, local government, the police, but also Border Force, Ofcom, Ofwat, and so on but, most particularly, this silly government……….
Always sweating the small stuff, never confronting the great intractable problems, yes the nhs but also illegal immigration, massive central and local government taxation, incompetent and inefficient overspending, over-regulation, hollowed out armed forces, filthy rivers, seas, pathetic infrastructure, roads falling to pieces, railways renationalised so now permanently on strike again, for Pete’s sake, etc etc……
ALWAYS SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF, NEVER CONFRONTING THE MAJOR PROBLEMS HEAD ON……AND IT IS THEIR JOB TO CONFRONT THE MAJOR PROBLEMS…..THAT IS WHAT WE PAY THEM, OUR REPRESENTATIVES, TO DO.
A side effect of having the government involved in small stuff at all, is that it diverts resources from the hard stuff. Why would a public servant fill their time with hard stuff they need to do if they could fill it with small stuff they also have to do.
In the case of the police, a side effect of this is that the public (and criminals) lose all respect for them, and the law.
Completely agree.
There is a major cultural problem within the civil service: if you do nothing, you can never do the wrong thing.
That is why government must be reduced in size; governments are hopeless at running stuff. Why would anyone think a politician would be good at running things? Clearly, tested to destruction, they are not.
Small government to take the big decisions; let the private sector sort out everything else, particularly healthcare (via a universal social insurance system: see IEA paper ‘Universal healthcare without the NHS).
The National Health Service paid for by British Citizens was doomed from the moment it was forced to provide free health care to the entire world.
It’s as if you paid for insurance on your house, and then allowed the entire town to claim on it.
I needed to see a GP this week for the first time in 16 years. What a palaver GP phone line 30mins on hold then ‘All appointment slots are booked. Try again tomorrow or use 111.’ 111: Only a few minutes on hold then a bunch of questions followed by ‘I’ll refer you to a pharmacist who can advise or book an urgent appointment with a GP if necessary’. Called the pharmacist. 15mins ringing. Told him I had a referral from 111. Described my symptoms and told him what I thought it was. ‘No point in seeing me about that. You need to see a GP.’. Just managed to stop him from hanging up and told him I needed a referral as the GPs regular appointments were full. He agreed to make a referral and told me to call the GP again in 10mins. GP phone line only 15mins on hold this time managed to talk to a human. ‘No, we haven’t got a referral for you. We’ll call you back in 30mins if it hasn’t come through.’. They did call back and gave me an ‘urgent appointment’ for later in the morning. Doctor took one look and told me… Read more »
Citizens ought to be allowed to opt out of the NHS, receive a tax rebate based on their actuarial status, and be required to pay for any NHS service used on the same basis as an overseas visitor would. While members of the public are captive consumers they will continue to be abused by the socialist monstrosity which is the NHS.
It’s a shame really the NHS used to be a secular religion in this country. When I was growing up in the eighties and nineties people would say that it is the envy of the world. They used to say the same about the BBC. Quite a short time for these entities to become monstrous beyond imagining. I’m not sure that there is much that is national about the NHS anymore given the level of outsourcing. It is more like a funnel for public funds akin perhaps to the funding mechanism of the military-industrial complex. The author Will Self remarked that ninety percent of healthcare spending is devoted to the last six weeks of end of life care and so the NHS should rightfully be called the national death service. Not much you can do about that though unless you unwisely believe that nothing could possibly go wrong with assisted dying.
Guess who was PM in 2004 when as paramedic says, GP’s pay doubled to £100,000 pa.
Just another of the great man’s (intentional?) catastrophic errors.
“Fewer than one in four (24%) people were happy with the health service in 2023”
Perhaps they haven’t needed the NHS recently but have a nice warm glow thinking about how wonderful it is – and then go and bang their pots & pans!
We’ve been training too many women doctors for many years. Anyone brave enough to say so is usually instantly pilloried but it’s along standing problem with little chance of being addressed, since the current zeitgeist is ’empowering’ these women. “I fear this gender imbalance is already having a negative effect on the NHS.
The reason is that most female doctors end up working part-time — usually in general practice — and then retire early.
As a result, it is necessary to train two female doctors so they can cover the same amount of work as one full-time colleague.
Given that the cost of training a doctor is at least £500,000, are taxpayers getting the best return on their investment?
There is another important issue. Women in hospital medicine tend to avoid the more demanding specialities which require greater commitment, have more antisocial working hours and include responsibility for management.
Instead of taking on a specialist career, many women prefer to look for a better work-life balance when they have young children of their own.” https://www.ikonlondonmagazine.com/why-having-so-many-women-doctors-is-hurting-the-nhs/