Survey shows biggest fall in NHS satisfaction


8:30 am - June 12th 2012

by Sunny Hundal    


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A British Social Attitudes Survey out today says public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped by a record amount – from 70% to 58% last year.

That is the largest recorded annual drop since the BSA survey started in 1983, and will certainly be attributed to Andrew Lansley.

John Appleby, chief economist at the think-tank King’s Fund, said NHS satisfaction had risen every year for almost a decade from 2001 but had now come to an end.

It was the scale of the fall that was unexpected, he added. The drop in satisfaction was marked across Labour, Tory and Lib Dem voters.

“It’s hard to say that the drop in satisfaction reflects a fall in NHS service quality,” he said.

Instead, the drop in satisfaction seems to be attributed to how the NHS was being run.

The King’s Fund took over funding the BSA survey after the government stopped commissioning it last year. Most likely to avoid headlines like this.

Labour’s Andy Burnham MP said in a statement:

It takes a special kind of incompetence to inherit a successful NHS with patient satisfaction at an all-time high and in just two years in Government turn it into an organisation demoralised, destabilised and fearful of the future.

It is heading back to the bad old days of the 80s and 90s with A&E in chaos and patients waiting for hours on trolleys in corridors.

The Sun newspaper has also run this story today – a damning indictment on Lansley.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Robert

Can we have a link to the actual Social Attitudes Survey results?

2. Roger Mexico

Can we have a link to the actual Social Attitudes Survey results?

Well it would have been nice, but if you felt the lack so much why didn’t you spend a minute googling and find it yourself? And share the results with the rest of us:

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/current_projects/bsa_survey_results_2011/index.html

The actual survey is actually published by the King’s Fund, but that was fairly easy to find out eg from the PA release.

3. Barrie J

Two years ago our local hospital contracted a business consultant to help them save money.
Wards closed.
The business consultant is still there, still ‘advising’ on a £1000 per day.
Let’s just dwell for a second ot two on the predictable reaction of doctors and nurses to this saving
He also gets expenses for travel and accomodation.
Is this where Mr Lansley sees the private sector contributing to the health of the nation?
Is this where Tory ‘growth’ is intended to spring from?
I imagine it’s very much the view from the Atlantic Bridge..

4. Just Visiting

Barrie

> Two years ago our local hospital contracted a business consultant to help them save money.

Getting expert advice is surely not a bad thing?
I hope they used wisdom in choosing a good expert – it’s on the local hospiyal’s management neck if they didn’t,

> Wards closed.
That may have been the best course of action for patients and budgets.
Or the worst outcome.

Such a vanilla statement puts the back up of anyone who wants an evidence based approach.

> The business consultant is still there, still ‘advising’ on a £1000 per day.

Maybe they are good and have been part of improving things.
Maybe they are a gold-digger and contributing nothing.

Your comment Barrie is evidence free – and meaning free.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Survey shows biggest fall in NHS satisfaction http://t.co/FwwPWyZ5

  2. Michael Payne

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  3. BevR

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  4. sunny hundal

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  5. Dr Anne Brunton

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  10. Owen Blacker

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  11. Milena Buyum

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  12. migo984

    British Social Attitudes survey out this morning shows largest fall in NHS satisfaction EVER http://t.co/4UUJuXSH

  13. wbmedia

    Huge rise in public dissatisfaction with NHS – http://t.co/B5N0oECc – would be good to know if this was seen as decline in front line #NHS

  14. leftlinks

    Liberal Conspiracy – Survey shows biggest fall in NHS satisfaction http://t.co/DP7ELaiF

  15. Christian Wilcox

    Satisfaction with the #NHS slumps: http://t.co/WueZcMkp. No wonder The #Torys tried to kill this survey. #Croydon #Labour (@GavinBarwellMP)

  16. Alex Braithwaite

    Survey shows biggest fall in NHS satisfaction | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/Z6hP7ITP via @libcon

  17. Janet Graham

    British Social Attitudes survey out this morning shows largest fall in NHS satisfaction EVER http://t.co/4UUJuXSH

  18. Storm Warner

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