Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2024: Results from the British Social Attitudes survey (2 April 2025)

Summary

The Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund join forces each year to analyse and present findings from the gold-standard survey of public attitudes and opinions towards the NHS and social care, as surveyed by NatCen. The 2024 survey results show that the British public are deeply unhappy with the way the NHS runs – just 1 in 5 people said they were satisfied.

Content

Key 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.
• The percentage of people who were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ dissatisfied with the NHS rose to 59% in 2024, from 52% in 2023. This represents a statistically significant 7-percentage-point increase from the year before, which already had the highest dissatisfaction seen in 40 years of the British Social Attitudes survey.
• A higher proportion of people in Wales (72%) were dissatisfied with the NHS compared to the survey average and compared to people in England (59%).
• Supporters of the Reform party were less likely to be satisfied (13%) than the survey average and this was significant after controlling for other variables like age and income.
• There is a divide between generations, with satisfaction lower and falling in younger age groups. While the proportion of people who were satisfied rose slightly for those aged 65 and over, from 25% to 27%, among those under 65 it fell significantly, from 24% to 19%.

Satisfaction with social care

• In 2024, only 13% of respondents said they were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ satisfied with social care (the same figure as 2023). 53% of respondents were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ dissatisfied.
• Respondents in Wales (69%) were again significantly more likely to be dissatisfied than the survey average.

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 satisfied.
• 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%).
• As in previous years, a strong majority of respondents agreed that the founding principles of the NHS should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply in 2024: that the NHS should be free of charge when you need to use it (90%); the NHS should primarily be funded through taxes (80%); and the NHS should be available to everyone (77%).
• The percentage of people saying that the NHS should ‘definitely’ be available to everyone decreased from 67% in 2023 to 56% in 2024. This is the only statistically significant change year-on-year across all three principles. Supporters of the Reform party (20%) were significantly less likely to say that the NHS should ‘definitely’ be available to everyone than the survey average.