The public think that the standard of care of the NHS and social care have got worse over the past 12 months; however, they are slightly less pessimistic about the standard of care looking at the next 12 months
The Health Foundation has partnered with Ipsos to deliver a programme of research into public perceptions of health and social care over the next two years.
Results from the first wave of polling have found that overall, the public think the standard of health and social care have got worse over the past 12 months (57% and 69%, respectively). However, the public are slightly less pessimistic looking at the next 12 months, with fewer than half thinking the NHS standard of care will get worse (43%) and just over half thinking the standard of social care will get worse (53%).
There is strong consensus of support for the core principles of the NHS; however, opinions are divided as to whether the NHS is providing a good service nationally (44%) and locally (42%). Around three in five members of the public (62%) do not think the government has the right policies in place for the NHS, and just over one in ten (12%) agree that their government does have the right policies.
The most important considerations for the public when booking an appointment at the GP practice are getting an appointment as quickly as possible and having a face-to-face appointment. Overall, people who recall having a GP appointment were satisfied with the type of appointment they had for their last appointment (64%), although satisfaction is higher among those who had an appointment in person at the practice (83%) than those who had a telephone appointment (51%).
The survey also covers the following topics:
- Around three in five of the public (58%) support the health and social care levy, while just over one in five (22%) oppose it.
- Individuals are seen to have the most responsibility for staying healthy (96%) followed by the food and drinks industry (80%) and the national government (80%). However, the public still think the government has a role to play in keeping people healthy (80%) and addressing health inequalities (69%).
- A little over half of the public (55%) think that the government has not handled the Coronavirus pandemic well.
- Most people have only a limited awareness of how their health data is used by the NHS (28%), academic researchers (20%), and commercial organisations (15%).
Technical note
The survey was conducted between 25th November and 1st December 2021 amongst residents of the UK aged 16 and over via the Ipsos UK KnowledgePanel. The KnowledgePanel is a random probability online panel with over 15,000 panellists who are recruited using off-line random probability unclustered address-based sampling, the gold-standard in UK survey research. A total of 3,600 respondents were selected and invited to take part in the survey. The selected sample was then reviewed on key demographics to ensure a balanced sample was selected for the survey. A total of 2,102 respondents completed the survey, delivering a response rate of 58%.
The sample was stratified by nation and education and reviewed on key demographics to ensure a balanced sample was selected for the survey. 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.
Please note that the fieldwork took place as the first cases of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 variant were first identified (on the 27th of November) and prior to Boris Johnson announcing new COVID-19 restrictions in England on the 8th of December
