Over half (51 per cent) of respondents were dissatisfied with the NHS, the highest proportion since the survey began.

Public satisfaction with the NHS has hit a 40-year low, with only 29% of Britons content with the health service, compared to 70% in 2010.

After 13 years of Tory rule, which has seen more than a decade of underfunding and austerity, the NHS has been left stretched and unable to meet demand, with 7 million  people waiting for hospital treatment with the NHS in England last year.

The British Social Attitudes Survey was based on findings from 2022 and published today, and found that public satisfaction with the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since it started recording public views of the taxpayer-funded health service 40 years ago.

Over half (51 per cent) of respondents were dissatisfied with the NHS, the highest proportion since the survey began.

The main reason people gave for being dissatisfied with the NHS was waiting times for GP and hospital appointments (69 per cent), followed by staff  shortages (55 per cent) and a view that the government does not spend enough money on the NHS (50 per cent).

Satisfaction with social care is the lowest of all, with only 14% of the public saying they are satisfied with it.

Jessica Morris, report author and Fellow at the Nuffield Trust said: “This 2022 British Social Attitudes survey points to a sustained and worsening concern about every part of the health service. What’s more, for some key services waiting times are now worse than when the survey was conducted.

“The Prime Minister has made recovering the NHS one of his central promises going into the next general election. But these results show what an enormous task this will be. It is clear that the level of unhappiness amongst the British public over the way the NHS is running is going to take many years to recover.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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