Britons grumble about hospitals despite Labour’s NHS drive
Britons remain frustrated with the state of hospitals despite the Labour government’s push to splash out on the NHS, a new report has suggested.
Polling by Ipsos for Deloitte and Re:State, a think tank focused on state capabilities, found that 42 per cent of Britons were dissatisfied with hospitals across the country.
Under a third of people (31 per cent) were satisfied with hospitals.
Ipsos researchers found there had been a sharp change in attitudes since height of the pandemic when Britons clapped outside their homes for doctors and social care workers.
In 2020, around 65 per cent of people were satisfied with hospitals while just 14 per cent were dissatisfied.
The findings are likely to be awkward for the Labour government after the NHS was given a £29bn real terms increase in day-to-day spending over the next three years, per last year’s Spending Review.
The investment is part of a drive to make 92 per cent of patients start consultant-led treatment for non-urgent conditions within 18 weeks of referral, a key target which is part of government efforts to reduce waiting lists.
Health secretary Wes Streeting’s 10-year blueprint for the NHS has also faced criticism from unions and industry groups over workforce changes and a reliance on the success of prevention for national healthcare.
Labour under pressure to overhaul civil service
The poll showed that the NHS was the second top priority for voters after the cost of living. It came ahead of immigration and jobs in the list of issues.
Re:State and Deloitte’s joint report, which interviewed around 100 public sector officials across councils and major government departments, suggested that the NHS had become “fundamentally unaffordable”.
Streeting’s 10-year plan was described as being “more vital than ever” by anonymous Whitehall figures quoted in the report.
The officials also appeared to complain about a “gridlock of talent” in the public sector and a belief among some that the size of the civil service should be smaller.
Polling showed that public trust in the government dropped lowest for the delivery of major projects on time and on budget.
The public was also less likely to trust the government on focusing resources on the needs of citizens.
But Ipsos recorded higher levels of faith in the government’s use of technology though there was a split on whether voters believed it had had a positive or negative effect on public services.