Health Foundation - 2nd July 2023
As the NHS marks its 75th anniversary, the founding principles of the health service – that care would be free at point of delivery, available to all and funded from tax – are largely the same. But how care is delivered and how the system is organised have changed significantly since 1948.
This anniversary presents a moment to reflect on how far the NHS has come and to look to the future. Recent years have seen the NHS face unparalleled challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic followed a decade of austerity, driving waiting lists to new heights and exacerbating longstanding workforce shortages. Amid record low public satisfaction and unprecedented industrial action, the health service is in crisis. So what does the public think about the NHS now and the challenges that lie ahead?
Our polling programme tracks public perceptions of the NHS every 6 months. This wave surveyed a representative sample of 2,450 UK adults aged 16 years and older between 5 and 10 May 2023, online via the Ipsos UK KnowledgePanel – the gold standard in UK survey research. Fieldwork started the day after local elections in England and covered the coronation of King Charles III.
Here we present six findings about how the public views the NHS at 75 and perceptions of what the future may bring.
1. The health service makes more people proud to be British than our history, our culture, our system of democracy or the royal family
2. Pride in the NHS is largely related to the NHS model – it being free at the point of use, affordable and paid for through taxation – but only 1 in 4 expect this to survive the next 10 years
3. The public is not confident the health service is prepared to meet key future challenges
4. Concern about the current state of the NHS crosses political divides, but people are split on what is causing pressures
5. Almost three-quarters of the public still think the NHS is crucial to British society and we must try to maintain it
6. There is strong support for increasing NHS funding, with an additional tax the preferred option for raising it
Further information - How the public views the NHS at 75
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