GP access tops list of public concerns about the NHS
New public polling published today by the Health Foundation and Ipsos shows that making it easier to get appointments at GP practices has risen to the top of the public’s priorities for the NHS.
The survey findings, based on fieldwork carried out towards the end of November last year, are the first comprehensive look at public attitudes to health and care under the new Labour government, shining a light on how the public’s concerns compare to the government’s key priorities for the NHS.
The Prime Minister has made reducing waiting times for routine hospital treatment his top priority for the NHS, pledging to meet the 18-week waiting time standard by the end of parliament. While more than a quarter (27%) of the UK public rank waiting times for routine hospital services as a top priority, this comes behind making it easier to get appointments at GP practices (38%), improving waiting times in A&E (33%) and reducing the number of staff leaving the NHS by improving working conditions (29%).
The latest wave of our regular polling shows that workforce issues are now seen as less of a priority among the public compared to in May 2024, possibly prompted by the resolution to industrial action and recent pay settlements. The public are also more likely to prioritise reducing waste and improving the efficiency of NHS services, than in previous surveys (up from 24% in May 2024 to 29%).
The survey found strong support among the English public for the three ‘shifts’ that are set to be the focus of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan for the NHS, which is due to be published in the spring. Focusing on preventing sickness not just treating it is the most popular shift (86% support this being a top priority for the government), followed by moving more care from hospitals to communities (82%) and making better use of technology (73%).
However, despite the widespread publicity about the 10 Year Health Plan, around 3 in 4 of the English public (73%) are unaware of it. Once made aware, just over a third (35%) are confident that developing a 10 Year Health Plan will lead to improvements in the NHS, whilst 59% are not confident. To help boost confidence in its plans, the government must use the 10 Year Health Plan to convey a clear vision for how the NHS will improve in future, alongside tangible examples of how services will change to meet people’s needs.
The NHS/health care remains the UK public’s top priority for extra public spending by a substantial margin. Nearly two-thirds (65%) think the NHS/health care should be prioritised to receive more public spending in the future – ahead of social care for older people (26%) and housing (23%). The NHS/health care is the top priority among supporters of all the main political parties, with the exception of Reform UK. People intending to vote Labour (76%) are significantly more likely to see the NHS/health care as a spending priority than the public overall.
The public is more divided on how, if at all, to pay for extra spending needed to meet the growing needs for the NHS. While increasing taxes to maintain the current level of care and services provided by the NHS is still the most preferred option (42%), support for tax increases has fallen over the last two years – down from 53% in November 2022 and 48% in November 2023. The reduction in support for increasing taxes is not mirrored by greater support for reducing spending on other public services or reducing the level of care and services provided by the NHS. Instead, more people now reject all three of these options – 34% in our latest survey, up from 25% in November 2022.
In a slight boost for the new government, the public has become more optimistic that NHS and social care services will improve than under the previous government, but they are still negative overall. Around 1 in 5 (21%) think the general standard of care provided by the NHS will get better over the next 12 months, compared with 11% in May 2024. Around 1 in 10 (11%) think the general standard of social care will get better over the next 12 months, compared to 5% in May 2024.
Hugh Alderwick, Director of Policy at the Health Foundation, said:
'Our latest survey shows broad public support for the government’s ideas for NHS reform, like shifting care into communities. But it also illustrate show challenging it will be to balance multiple priorities for improving the health service and the difficult trade-offs this will involve. The public’s top priority is improving access to general practice, but the government’s headline political pledge on the NHS is to reduce waiting times for routine hospital treatment over the parliament. Making this happen will require substantial resources and may mean slower progress on improving care elsewhere, such as in primary and community care – particularly if extra investment is limited.
'The 10-year plan is an opportunity to provide hope things will get better and clarity on what government’s ideas for reform mean in practice. But the real test will be whether people see tangible improvements to the care they get from the NHS as a result – and how fast it happens.'
Notes to editors
The full analysis from the Health Foundation regarding this polling, along with the raw data necessary to recreate the charts mentioned in the analysis, is available upon request.
About the survey
Our latest wave of polling (wave 7) was conducted between 21st and 27th November 2024 using Ipsos’s Knowledge Panel, a random probability online panel. We surveyed a representative sample of 2,198 people aged 16 years and older in the UK. The sample was stratified by nation and education and delivered a response rate of 58%. The sample was reviewed on key demographics to ensure a balanced sample was selected. Some survey questions reported in this blog were asked of England respondents only giving a base of 1,686 respondents. A weighting spec was applied to the data in line with the target sample profile; this included one which corrected for unequal probabilities of selection of household members (to account for two members who may have been selected from one household), and weights for region, an interlocked variable of Gender by Age, Education, Ethnicity, Index of Multiple Deprivation (quintiles), and number of adults in the household.
Media Contact
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About the Health Foundation
The Health Foundation is an independent charitable organisation working to build a healthier UK.
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