Is the NHS no longer the UK's sacred cow?

Satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to the lowest level in 40 years, with the once sacred cow of British life now facing widespread criticism.

The newly published results of the latest British Social Attitudes survey reveal that only 24% of 3,374 respondents in England, Scotland and Wales were satisfied with the health service in 2023.

"Satisfaction with every service – from A&E to dentistry – is at or near historic lows," said Thea Stein and Sarah Woolnough, chief executives of the Nuffield Trust and the King's Fund think tanks, which conduct the annual poll. "These are shocking figures for a service that is seen as a crowning jewel in the British state, for which immense sacrifices were made during the Covid-19 pandemic, and which attracts such significant political and media interest." 

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What did the commentators say?

The previous lowest level of satisfaction was 34% in 1997, just before Labour swept to a landslide election victory with a campaign that promised to "save the NHS", said The Times.

Dan Wellings, senior fellow at the King’s Fund, said that with another general election now looming, "political leaders should take note of just how far satisfaction with this celebrated public institution has fallen". And the NHS is "the number one issue that people are flagging for the election".

Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, an over-60s campaign group, told The Telegraph that the "sad state of affairs" it made him "want to cry". The NHS "has plunged from being the pride of Britain to an organisation that people moan about nearly as much as the weather", he said.

Strikes by junior doctors and consultants, "many already on enviable pay-and-pension deals, have exacerbated the problems facing patients", said the Daily Mail in a leader article. In addition, "too much money and time is wasted on bloated bureaucracy, creaking IT systems and wokery". 

"A serious debate is needed on how the health service is funded beyond general taxation, and whether more private provision and competition can be introduced," said the paper. NHS patients are "surely less concerned about how they get their treatment, as long as it is timely, of a high standard – and free." 

Last week Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told the Financial Times that he wanted to end the NHS's reliance on the private health sector – albeit by using its capacity in the short term to reduce NHS waiting times. Evidence for New Labour's "ideological conviction" that competition in public services drives up standards was "patchy", he said, and the aim should be to return to a time when "the NHS was so good that people didn't feel the need to go private".

What next?

Despite "understandable" dissatisfaction with long waiting times, the survey findings also show that the public "fully support NHS staff who they feel are doing a good job under extremely difficult circumstances", said Sky News' health correspondent Ashish Joshi. The public remains "fiercely loyal"  to the institution and its founding principles: that it is free at the point of use "for all from cradle to grave". 

And the majority are willing to pay more tax to preserve it, the survey found. Almost half (48%) of respondents said that ministers should increase taxes and spend more on the health service.

The results suggest that "changing the model of the NHS is not something the public wants – they just want the model they have got to work", said the British Social Attitudes survey.