Satisfaction levels with NHS dentistry among the British public have continued to collapse since the pandemic, from 60 per cent in 2019 to a record low of 20 per cent in 2024, according to analysis of the latest British Social Attitudes survey (BSA).

Dissatisfaction levels for NHS dentistry (55 per cent) are the highest for any NHS service asked about.

General satisfaction levels regarding the NHS have fallen, with just one in five people (21 per cent) in 2024 saying they were satisfied with the way it runs.

The analysis, published by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund, has revealed that satisfaction has plummeted by 39 percentage points since the months before the pandemic.

Six in 10 people (59 per cent) said they were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ dissatisfied with the NHS in 2024, a sharp rise from 52 per cent in 2023. This is the highest level of dissatisfaction with the health service since the survey began in 1983. The survey, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in September and October 2024, is seen as a gold-standard measure of public attitudes in Britain.

NHS staffing and spending are also worrying the public. Only 11 per cent agreed that “there are enough staff in the NHS these days”. While a strong majority (69 per cent) said the government spends too little or far too little on the NHS, only 14 per cent agreed that “The NHS spends the money it has efficiently”.

If forced to choose, the public would narrowly opt for increasing taxes and raising NHS spending (46 per cent) over keeping them the same (41 per cent). Only eight per cent would prefer tax reductions and lower NHS spending.

Despite low satisfaction with services, there remains strong majority support for the founding principles of the NHS: that it should “definitely or probably” be free at the point of use (90 per cent), available to everyone (77 per cent), and funded from general taxation (80 per cent). However, the percentage of people saying that the NHS should “definitely” be available to everyone has decreased from 67 per cent in 2023 to 56 per cent in 2024.

Bea Taylor, report author and fellow at The Nuffield Trust, said, “Just five years after the British public were called on to ‘Protect the NHS’ at the start of the pandemic, these findings reveal just how dismayed they are about the state of the NHS today.

“The government says the NHS is broken, and the public agrees. But support for the core principles of the NHS – free at the point of use, available to all and funded by taxation – endures despite the collapse in satisfaction. Harnessing this support and fixing the foundations of the NHS must be central to the government’s forthcoming reform programme.”

Other findings include:

  • There is a divide between generations, with satisfaction lower and falling in younger age groups. While the proportion of satisfied people rose slightly between 2023 and 2024 for those aged 65+ from 25 per cent to 27 per cent, among those under 65, it fell significantly from 24 per cent to 19 per cent.
  • A significantly higher proportion of people in Wales (72 per cent) were dissatisfied with the NHS compared to 59 per cent in England and 60 per cent in Scotland.

Dan Wellings, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, said, “The latest results lay bare the extent of the problems faced by the NHS and the size of the challenge for the government. While the results are sobering, they should not be surprising. For too many people, the NHS has become difficult to access: how can you be satisfied with a service you can't get into?

“In 2010, seven out of 10 people were satisfied with the NHS – it is now down to only one in five. The scale of the decline over the last few years has been dramatic. The results show that people do not want a different funding model, but they do want the NHS to start working for them again, and they want it to have the staff and the money it needs to ensure that happens. The public is also clear that the NHS needs to get better at spending the money it does get more efficiently.”

Thea Stein and Sarah Woolnough, Nuffield Trust and King's Fund chief executives, have argued that ministers will need to meet public demand for improving dental care, A&E and GP appointments. However, they should not lose sight of the much bigger prize of longer-term, sustainable reform focused around shifting care from hospitals and moving the NHS from a sickness to a health service.

References available on request.

Author: