Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest level for a decade despite Theresa May’s £20.5bn-a-year funding boost and the enthusiasm created by the service’s 70th birthday.
Barely half of people surveyed (53%) are happy with how the NHS is run, the lowest percentage since 2007. It is 16 percentage points lower than in 2010, when the coalition government’s austerity programme began.
Satisfaction with GP services has fallen to its lowest level. Fewer than two-thirds (63%) of people in Britain are happy with them, while 24% say they are dissatisfied.
Patient frustration with lengthening waits for GP or hospital appointments is the main reason for the increasingly widespread disillusionment. But about half of people in Britain also believe the NHS has too few staff and too little money, research shows.
The figures are among the latest findings from the British Social Attitudes Survey, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research.
The NHS experts who analysed the results said they were puzzled about why satisfaction with the running of the NHS continued to decline in 2018, given the extra money the prime minister promised it last June as a gift to mark its 70th birthday on 5 July.
Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle underground station (Northern and Bakerloo lines).
Nearest Railway Station: Elephant & Castle
Buses from Elephant and Castle: ask bus driver for Burgess Park. Bus numbers: 12, 171, 148, 176, 68, 484, 42, 40, 45