Confidence in the NHS is at its lowest since 1997 – where’s the urgency for change?

The survey results should not be used as yet another stick to beat hard-working family doctors with. Instead, they should be a wakeup call, proof of the urgent need for action, writes Martin Marshall

The pandemic only served to exacerbate a pre-existing issue within the NHS (Getty Images)

Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest since 1997, with just 36 per cent of voters happy with the performance of our health service, according to The King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust research in their annual British Social Attitudes survey.

The health service was already buckling under staffing and resource pressures, but the pandemic only served to exacerbate the issue – and general practice is feeling this as acutely as any other part of the health service.

It must not be considered a simple blip caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, though. These results should raise an alarm for politicians and policymakers that there are long-term, fundamental concerns that aren’t going to conveniently go away: it isn’t a storm to weather.