By stewartb
The health think tank, the Kings Fund in collaboration the Nuffield Trust has just published a report on public satisfaction in 2025 with the NHS and social care across the UK. It is based on British Social Attitudes Survey research. The report notes: ‘The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is a ‘gold standard’, nationally representative survey that uses a robust methodology to explore public views on what it is like to live in Britain and how respondents think the country is run.’
The research provides views on the NHS overall and on selected NHS services viz. general practice, dentistry, emergency services, and inpatient and outpatient services. It provides comparative data for the different nations of the UK on some but, oddly, not all four of these NHS services. It does provide comparative findings for social care.
In all cases where comparative findings are provided, the results are most favourable for the NHS and social care in Scotland relative to the other nations. The other consistent pattern is that public satisfaction levels in Wales are the lowest of the three nations within Great Britain. (Some readers may already be jumping ahead to how this research is being reported in Scotland!)
The report states: ‘A significantly lower proportion of people in Wales (18%) were satisfied with the NHS than the survey average. This remained statistically significant when controlling for other factors. People in Scotland (33%) were significantly more satisfied than people in Wales,…’ (my emphasis)
Comparative findings are provided for NHS dental services: ‘..analysis reveals that Scottish respondents are significantly more satisfied (40%) with NHS dentistry than both English (21%) and Welsh (14%) respondents. Scottish respondents were more satisfied than dissatisfied with NHS dentistry, in sharp contrast to English and Welsh respondents who were significantly more dissatisfied than satisfied.’
On NHS emergency services: ‘Scottish respondents were significantly more satisfied (40%) with A&E services than English (21%) and Welsh (14%) respondents.’
Comparable national figures are not reported for GP services, nor for inpatient and outpatient services. No explanation is give for this and I have yet to find the raw survey results.
The report also highlights this attitudinal difference: ‘The view that too little was spent on the NHS was significantly more likely to be held by respondents in Scotland (80%) compared to England (64%).’ Pity for Scotland-based respondents that it’s only those in England that have a government with the necessary range of powers, of agency, to make a substantial increase in overall NHS resourcing.
On social care, the survey finds that the percentage ‘very’ or ‘quite’ dissatisfied is lowest in Scotland.
The report does contain some ‘odd’ bits! Under ‘Context – The NHS in 2024 and 2025′ we find this: ‘The Scottish and Welsh governments pursued their own reform agendas but against a similar backdrop of operational pressures, long waiting times and staffing concerns. While industrial action in the devolved nations was less sustained than in England, similar concerns persisted.’ Is that a carefully contrived way of avoiding having to state that NHS Scotland had no actual industrial action in 2024–2025, no lost days or other forms of service disruption due to the efforts of the Scottish Government and trades unions to resolve their disputes?
The publication of this report was featured on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. Initially a Today presenter implied it was a report on England and (in terms) indicated an improving situation which would be attributed to Westminster government action. Only in a later Today news bulletin was it referred to as UK-wide but with no mention of contrasting findings for the different nations.
The BBC News website has this headline today (25 March): ‘Young people less satisfied with the NHS – survey’. It explains that the survey covers England, Scotland and Wales. It reports that: ‘People in Wales were less likely to report being satisfied compared with the average, with 18% reporting satisfaction.’ Note ‘less likely’ rather than ‘least likely’: three nations are compared.
The same BBC News article also provides an opportunity for the Westminster government to amplify its political message: ‘The Health Secretary in England said the NHS was on the road to recovery ..’ and “It is thanks to the government’s investment and modernisation – all of which has been hard fought but is now delivering results.“ The findings for health and social care services with the highest public approval ratings – those in Scotland, those that have arguably benefited from prior government investment, modernisation and hard work – were entirely absent from the BBC article.
Unsurprisingly, research results even from a ‘gold standard’ survey that are favourable to Scotland’s government, NHS and social care relative to other UK nations – and in an election year, notably much more favourable than findings for long Labour run NHS Wales – has proved to be of no interest to those in BBC Scotland responsible for contributing content to the Corporation’s news website.
Discover more from Talking-up Scotland
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Talking-up Scotland 