Healthcare delivery
How satisfied are patients with the NHS?
The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust have analysed the latest data on the public’s attitudes to the NHS. Despite a rise in public satisfaction, frustrations remain.
The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust have analysed data from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, which was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) between August and October 2025. In 2019, 60% of respondents said that they were satisfied with the NHS and this figure had been spiralling downwards, reaching a record low of just one in five (21%) in 2024. The authors of thePublic satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2025 report say the ‘year-on-year’ falls in satisfaction seen since the pandemic ‘appear to have eased’, and while these results will be a ‘welcome relief’ for the government they do not offer a solid signal as to whether the bounce in NHS satisfaction marks a decisive turning point. The findings highlight that age and political affiliation continue to be a key driver of public perceptions of the NHS. For example, just a fifth (20%) of people under 35 said they were satisfied with the way the NHS is run compared to over a third (35%) of people 65 and over. Additionally, The King’s Fund and Nuffield
Trust reveal that, in 2025, public dissatisfaction with the NHS saw its biggest fall in more than 25 years, with around half of respondents (51%)
saying they were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ dissatisfied, marking a drop of 8 percentage points from 2024. Despite this, only half of respondents (50%) said they were satisfied with the quality of NHS care in 2025 and only 16% of respondents thought the standard of NHS care would improve in the next 5 years. The results show that access to services is still the major issue for the public, and only around a fifth (22%) said they were satisfied with A&E services. When asked what the top three priorities for the NHS should be, nearly half (46%) of respondents selected both ‘making it easier to get a GP appointment’ and ‘improved A&E waiting times’ as their top priorities. As in previous years, a strong majority of
respondents agreed that the founding principles of the NHS should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply. Nearly 9 in ten (89%) said that the NHS should be free of charge when you need to use it, around 8 in ten (81%) said that the NHS should primarily be funded through taxes and nearly three quarters (74%) said the NHS should be available to everyone. However, on the principle of whether the NHS should ‘definitely’ be available to everyone, the authors found there were stark differences
by political support. While 68% of Labour supporters ‘definitely’ agreed, just 45% of Conservative supporters and 30% of Reform supporters ‘definitely’ agreed. Other findings fromPublic satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2025 include: l Two-thirds (66%) of respondents said that the government was spending ‘too little’ or ‘far too little’ on the NHS. Only 13% of respondents agreed that ‘the NHS spends the money it has efficiently’.
l When asked about government choices on tax and spending on the NHS, the public remains closely divided between raising taxes and spending more on the NHS (45%) and keeping taxation and spending at the same level (43%). Only 8% would choose to cut taxes and spend less on the NHS.
l As with previous years, social care satisfaction lags behind overall NHS satisfaction and just 14% of respondents said they were satisfied with social care. 49% said they were ‘very or ‘quite dissatisfied’ with social care – a statistically significant decrease from 2024 of four percentage points.
Dan Wellings, Senior Fellow, The King’s Fund said: “The rise in public satisfaction will be welcome relief for an NHS that has seen satisfaction plummet in recent years. But whether this marks the start of a genuine recovery or is just brief respite remains an open question. Much will depend on how quickly the government can improve access to care. “Frustration with waiting times remains deeply embedded, and many people still feel that access to NHS care is difficult – either it is too hard to get through the front door or they are in a queue that barely moves. The government’s NHS reform programme is ambitious, but the real test is delivery: will these changes translate into better access to services, and will the public feel the difference?” Bea Taylor, Fellow, Nuffield Trust said: “It’s becoming more common for political figures to seriously mull over the possibility of changing the funding model of the NHS, but these survey
May 2026 I
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