Public satisfaction with general practice has continued to fall over the past year, with just under one in three people saying they are ‘satisfied with GP services’.
The latest British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) found that just one in five people (21%) said they were ‘satisfied with the way the NHS runs’.
It found that satisfaction with general practice continued to decrease, 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.
And GP appointments were at the top of people’s crucial issues for the NHS according to the survey, with 51% of respondents saying that felt the most important priority for the NHS should be ‘making it easier to get a GP appointment’.
The survey, published today by the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund, highlighted that dissatisfaction with waiting times and the ability to get an appointment ‘is widespread’, and is consistent across respondents from all ages and UK countries, with 62% of all respondents ‘dissatisfied with the time it takes to get a GP appointment’.
According to the survey analysis, NHS spending is also ‘worrying’ the public, with a strong majority (69%) saying that the Government spends ‘too little’ or ‘far too little’ on the NHS. Only 14% agreed that ‘the NHS spends the money it has efficiently’.
Last year, the survey found that large numbers of the public were willing to pay higher taxes to fund the NHS, as satisfaction with GP services was at 34%.
The main findings
Satisfaction with the NHS
• In 2024, just one in five British adults (21%) were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ satisfied with the way in which the NHS runs. This is the lowest level of satisfaction recorded since the survey began in 1983 and shows a steep decline of 39 percentage points since 2019. Only 2% of respondents were ‘very’ satisfied with the NHS, down from 4% in 2023
Satisfaction with different NHS services
• Public satisfaction with A&E services has fallen sharply, from 31% to just 19%, and dissatisfaction has risen from 37% to 52%. These are the worst figures on record by a large margin and make A&E the service with lowest satisfaction levels for the first time.
• Satisfaction with NHS dentistry has continued to collapse. As recently as 2019 this was at 60%, but it has now fallen to a record low of 20%. Dissatisfaction levels (55%) are the highest for any specific NHS service asked about.
• Satisfaction with GP services continued to fall, mirroring the trend over the last few years. 31% of respondents said they were satisfied with GP services, compared with 34% in 2023.
• Inpatient and outpatient hospital care is the part of the NHS with the highest levels of satisfaction, with 32% saying they were satisfied and only 28% dissatisfied.
Attitudes to standards of care, staffing and efficiency
• The majority of the public (51%) said they were satisfied with the quality of NHS care. People aged 65 and over were more likely to be satisfied (68%) with the quality of NHS care than those under 65 (47%).
• Dissatisfaction with waiting times and the ability to get an appointment is widespread, and is consistent across respondents from all ages and UK countries:
– 62% of all respondents were dissatisfied with the time it takes to get a GP appointment. 23% were satisfied.
– 65% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the length of time it takes to get hospital care. 14% said they were dissatisfied.
– Dissatisfaction levels are highest regarding the length of time it takes to be seen in A&E. 69% of respondents said they were dissatisfied, while just 12% said they were satisfied.
• Only 11% agreed that ‘there are enough staff in the NHS these days’. 72% disagreed.
NHS funding, principles and priorities
• 8% of respondents said that the government spent too much or far too much money on the NHS; 21% said that it spent about the right amount, and 69% said that it spent too little or far too little.
• When asked about government choices on tax and spending on the NHS, the public would narrowly choose increasing taxes and raising NHS spend (46%) over keeping them the same (41%). Only 8% would prefer tax reductions and lower NHS spending
• Only 14% of respondents agreed that ‘the NHS spends the money it has efficiently’. 51% disagreed with this statement.
• Respondents felt the most important priorities for the NHS should be making it easier to get a GP appointment (51%) and improving A&E waiting times (49%), with increases in staff (48%) and better hospital waiting times close behind (also 48%). A&E has now slightly overtaken staffing as a priority, reflecting the sharp fall in satisfaction described above. People under 65 were more likely to prioritise improving mental health services (34%) than those aged 65 and over (21%).
RCGP honorary secretary Dr Michael Mulholland said that the results of this survey demonstrate how ‘nonsensical’ it is that many GPs are reporting being unable to find work when there is such clear patient need for GP care.
He said: ‘It is always troubling to hear that patients are dissatisfied with general practice, and the NHS more widely – particularly as other recent surveys and metrics have indicated that satisfaction with GP services, including access to them, is steadily improving.
‘The unfortunate reality is that patient need for GP care and services continues to outstrip the resources available to us to deliver it.
‘GPs and our teams are now delivering more appointments than ever before – 367 million last year, more than a million per day – and increasingly complex care, but with just a handful more qualified GPs than in 2019.
‘We know how much our patients value the care GP teams provide, and it’s as frustrating for us as it is for them when they report struggling to access it.
‘This is the result of longstanding failures in funding and workforce planning – and it’s encouraging to see that the public recognises this, and that they want to see the NHS prioritised for investment.’
The survey was carried out between 16 September and 27 October last year, and it asked a nationally representative sample of 2,945 people (across England, Scotland and Wales) about their satisfaction with the NHS and adult social care services overall, and 933 people about their satisfaction with specific NHS services, as well as their views on NHS priorities, principles and funding.
NHS Confederation’s policy director Dr Layla McCay said that the findings are ‘of little surprise’ given the survey was conducted at time when the new Government ‘was communicating how “broken” the NHS was’ and when waiting lists were so high.
She added: There have been improvements since this time including to how patients access GP appointments and to the backlog of elective procedures coming down for five consecutive months.
‘However, many staff recognise that despite everything they are doing, the standard of care they are providing can sometimes fall short of what they would like to provide for their patients.
‘Both patients and staff can clearly see the impact that more than a decade of being starved of capital funding has had on the health service, including dilapidated buildings and outdated equipment.’
Report author Bea Taylor, fellow at The Nuffield Trust, said: ‘The Government says the NHS is broken, and the public agree. 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.’
During Covid Lockdowns whole sectors were told to “re-skill”.
Would it be too contravercial to consider the same offer to the 30,000 NHSE and ICB staff, who are subject to the 50% headcount reduction?
It could be like a new ARR funding addition, for DHSC paid administrators, to help answer the Cloud Based Telephones that they made GP Surgeries sign-up to.
Shifting the funding from “commissioning” to “provisioning”?
How can asking around 3000 people with a population of over 60 million be representative
And who did this? the Tories. Never forgive, Never forget,
Perhaps the endless rotation though various clinicans until people actually see a doctor explains the dissatisfaction despite more appointments being provided ? Just a thought
This doesn’t really tell anyone who works in the NHS with actual patient contact anything they don’t already know. 10 years of complete mismanagement have taken their toll. The PCN ARRS experiment has not worked and is deeply unpopular with the public. Until the powers that be realise this and change course things will continue to get worse.
Labour inflicted this ghastly Stalinist monster on us in 1947. Never forgive, never forget.
Many Billions of people have been treated by the NHS since its inception: Conservatives, Labour, Liberals, Libdems, Greens, SNP and allsorts, from birth to death, rich and poor, intellectuals and non-intellectuals, people of all diversities, families and individuals, without having the added worry of financial strain at a time of illness: Dr No and Dr Haddock never forget, the NHS probably helped to bring you into this world and has helped you since; ( not just by providing you with a job and vocation, and your food and a roof over your heads ).
Hey Sam! – absolutely so. What I’m saying (and is plain to see) is that the plummeting satisfaction curiously slings with the years the Conservatives have been in power. They are wreckers in all spheres of public life. LABOUR brought about the NHS, and the TORIEs have finally broken it.