Health On The Line Is satisfaction in the NHS bouncing back?
Apr 8, 2026
Leonora Merry, communications director at the Nuffield Trust, and Dan Wellings, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, unpack the 2025 British Social Attitudes survey. They discuss a modest lift in satisfaction, why access and waiting times still dominate perceptions, the COVID legacy on trust, generational divides, and growing pessimism about the NHS future.
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Build A Single Influential Membership Voice
- The new NHS Alliance should combine unified national influence with peer support across sectors.
- Sarah Walter explains members wanted a single body to reduce duplication and amplify a collective voice while enabling shared problem-solving.
Speak Truth To Power With Evidence And Solutions
- Speak truth to power but base criticism on robust evidence and offer practical alternatives.
- Daniel Reynolds recommends no-surprises engagement, using member intelligence and data, and coupling critique with solutions.
Headline Rise Hides Service-Level Stagnation
- Improvement in the headline satisfaction score is not mirrored across specific services like GPs and A&E.
- Leonora contrasts today's low overall satisfaction with the late 1990s when GP satisfaction was ~75% despite lower overall scores.