Key Summary
- Around 51 percent respondents were dissatisfied with the NHS in 2025, a significant fall of 8 percentage points compared with 59 percent in 2024.
- Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents want improvements in GP appointments and A&E waiting times.
- The authors of the survey said this improvement does not offer a solid signal of a "decisive turning point".
The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey for 2025 shows that NHS may be turning a corner, but GP appointments and A&E waiting times remain a concern.
A poll of 3,400 people from England, Scotland and Wales showed that 26 percent of British adults were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ satisfied with the way in which the NHS runs – an increase of 6 percentage points from 2024, the first improvement since 2019.
In 2019, 60 percent of respondents said that they were satisfied with the NHS and this figure had been spiralling downwards, reaching a record low of 21 percent in 2024.
Around half of respondents (51 percent) were dissatisfied with the NHS in 2025, a significant fall of 8 percentage points compared with 2024, when it was 59 percent.
The King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust health thinktanks claim it is the sharpest annual fall since a drop of 15 percent in 1998, when it fell to 36 percent.
The authors of "Public 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.
However, they do not offer a solid signal as to whether the bounce in NHS satisfaction marks a decisive turning point, they added.
The King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust pointed out that though dissatisfaction levels have come down significantly, only half of respondents (50 percent) said they were satisfied with the quality of NHS care in 2025 and only 16 percent thought the standard of NHS care would improve in the next five years.
The results show that access to services is still the major issue for the public, with only 22 percent expressing satisfaction with A&E services.
When asked what the top three priorities for the NHS should be, nearly half (46 percent) of respondents listed easier GP appointments and improved A&E waiting times as their top priorities.
The public perception of the NHS satisfaction varied with age. Among the under 35 age group it was only 20 percent, but it was 35 percent among those aged 65 and over.
The poll was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) between August and October 2025.
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 a brief respite remains an open question. Much will depend on how quickly the government can improve access to care."
Bea Taylor, Fellow, Nuffield Trust said, "The boost in satisfaction with the NHS has not been felt equally across age groups. A stark generational divide remains, with older people still most likely to be optimistic about the health service."
Health secretary Wes Streeting said, “The biggest drop in dissatisfaction since 1998 doesn’t happen by accident. It is thanks to the government’s investment and modernisation – all of which has been hard fought but is now delivering results."
Matthew Taylor, interim chief executive of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said, "The British Social Attitudes survey shows the NHS has started to turn a corner, but there is a long way to go before public satisfaction levels are back to where they should be.
"The secretary of state is right to focus on areas of the country where performance levels are lagging. It's good to see he recognises that this is not down to poor local leadership, but instead often the result of historic structural issues that have never been properly addressed.
"Local NHS leaders will value the government's backing for difficult changes to local services that are required to enhance safety and improve the quality of care. Too often, these changes have been blocked because they have been deemed by successive governments as being too politically difficult to back.
"We need to back local leaders to deliver these changes and continue to support and incentivise leaders to take on the most difficult NHS jobs in the country. That's why we welcome the focus of the government's new Intensive Recovery programme on improvement and support rather than naming and shaming NHS organisations."
