PUBLIC satisfaction with the NHS is at a record 40-year low, a survey has found.
Some 59 per cent said they were unhappy with the health service, with A&E delays the biggest bugbear among patients.
NHS has slumped to an all-time low for patient satisfaction with ‘grim’ poll showing soaring anger at A&E delays[/caption]
The figure is up from 52 per cent last year and the highest since the study began in 1983.
Just 21 per cent said they were satisfied with the NHS, well down from 60 per cent in 2019, before the pandemic, and a peak of 70 per cent in 2010.
Satisfaction is lowest with A&E waiting times at just 12 per cent. Social care and NHS dentistry had satisfaction levels of 13 and 20 per cent.
Since 2019 waiting lists have hit 7.5million in England and Wales. And the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E is at 518,000 a year.
The British Social Attitudes poll of 3,000 was in September and October. Analyst Mark Dayan, of the Nuffield Trust think-tank, said: “These are pretty grim findings.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “There’s a long way to go but we are fixing our NHS.”
Meanwhile, a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study found ten per cent felt they had been physically or emotionally harmed by the NHS in the past three years.
