Major poll reveals 'startling collapse' in satisfaction with the NHS

Some 59 per cent of adults say they are dissatisfied with the health service, up seven percentage points in a year and the highest level on record.

The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, which covers Scotland, England and Wales , found only a fifth of respondents (21 per cent) are now satisfied with the NHS.

This is down from 24 per cent year-on-year and the lowest proportion since the survey began in 1983.

Overall satisfaction with the NHS has plummeted 39 percentage points since the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when 60 per cent of adults said they were satisfied with the health service.

The survey, which was carried out in autumn 2024 and has been published by the Nuffield Trust and the King's Fund, shows sharp drops in satisfaction with particular services, including A&E, GPs and dentistry.

However, the findings suggest people still believe in the founding principles of the NHS and the majority believe it needs more money and staff.

Nuffield Trust policy analyst Mark Dayan said: "These figures make clear that since 2019 and through the Covid-19 pandemic we saw a startling collapse in NHS satisfaction.

"This was no aberration: it is continuing even today.

"It is by far the most dramatic loss of confidence in how the NHS runs that we have seen in 40 years of this survey."

The survey was carried out between September 16 and October 27 2024 among 2,945 adults across Britain.

The findings come after a raft of statistics on the state of the NHS in Scotland were released.

A report showed a number of diagnosis and treatment targets were missed for breast cancer in Scotland.

Figures from Public Health Scotland (PHS) showed there were 5,506 women diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, up from 5,192 the previous year.

But across Scotland , only nine out of 17 "quality performance indicator" targets were met that year.

The Optimal Time to Radiotherapy Treatment was missed by a wide margin - with a performance of 25.4 per cent recorded against a target of 80 per cent.

Separate figures revealed nearly 2,000 people were stuck in Scottish hospitals in February despite being ready to leave.

At the February 2025 census, 1,986 people experienced delayed discharge - greater than the levels seen in January (1,969) and December 2024 (1,890).

The statistics from Public Health Scotland also show the median length people were delayed was 23 days in February, up from 22 the month before but fewer than December and November, both at 29 days.

Across the whole of February, the average number of beds occupied per day due to delayed discharge was 1,946, fewer than January (1,964) and December 2024 (1,991).

Patients in hospitals spent 54,487 days waiting to be released when they were ready - higher than the 54,355 days for the previous month.

On waiting times, weekly data from Public Health Scotland showed that of the 27,441 people who went to accident and emergency in the week ending March 23 , almost seven out of 10 (68.2 per cent) were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

That is up from 67.5 per cent the previous week, and higher than the weekly average that was recorded over 2024 of 64.7 per cent

Meanwhile 2,619 patients (9.5 per cent) spent eight hours or more in A&E, with 1,069 (3.9 per cent) there for at least 12 hours or more.