Last year I published
an article on this website about the National Health Service (NHS). In my
opinion the NHS has got some very serious customer service problems that
need to be addressed urgently. Although lack of funding is partly to blame, simply throwing
money at the problem will not solve the more deep-rooted issues of poor
management and the way that some people in the NHS (in management roles and
also in medical roles) treat their ‘customers’ with arrogance and disdain.
Just before Christmas
I had to contend with some appalling (and potentially even illegal) experiences
with the NHS in Lincolnshire leading up to the death of my mother. The whole
thing is still too raw and too upsetting to write about at the moment. But one
day I am going to put my experiences down in writing, either in this blog, or
in another publication.
One thing that angers
me greatly is the way that some naïve members of the British public have an
unquestioning and obsequious attitude towards the NHS, believing that anyone
who works for the service is somehow superhuman and beyond reproach. I have
seen plenty of evidence over the last decade that some people who work in the NHS (and I
don’t just mean the pen-pushers) deserve to be fired immediately - and never
allowed anywhere near a hospital again!
So it didn’t surprise
me at all when I read today that public satisfaction with some NHS services has
fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1983.
For example, satisfaction
with GPs dropped by 7% to 65% in the survey, making it the first time ever that
GP services have not been the highest-rated part of the NHS.
But aside from GP
services, public satisfaction with the NHS generally fell by 6% since 2016. Only
57% of people said they were happy with the service (the lowest level since
2011) while dissatisfaction has risen to 29% - the highest level of dissatisfaction
in a decade.
Common reasons given
for dissatisfaction with the NHS were staff
shortages, long
waiting times, lack
of funding and government
reforms - amongst many more! According to Ruth
Robertson, fellow at the King's Fund "The public used to put GPs on a
pedestal. But since 2009, when there was an 80% satisfaction rating, it has
been steadily declining. It shows the impact of the huge pressure on GPs and
the public is responding to that."
But Ms Robertson was also
keen to stress that the NHS was still highly valued by the public: "More
people are satisfied with the NHS than are dissatisfied. They showed really
strong support for the core value principles of the NHS. I think this shows
that it is not falling out of favour, but people are worried about the NHS and
they are worried about funding and staffing shortages."
The age group which say
they were most satisfied with GPs was people aged over 65 and Ms Robertson
added: "This is because they see GPs more often so build up a stronger personal
relationship with them."
Professor John
Appleby, Chief Economist and Director of research at the Nuffield Trust said:
"These results should make the government sit up and take notice. If they
want to see satisfaction rise, my suggestion is they should think seriously now
about more money for healthcare over the next few years.”
"We know that
people are increasingly dissatisfied with their access to getting GP
appointments and so on, so there is clearly something to be done. It's not just
about money to fix these problems but these are the things that the public
notice and they care about, so it's something that the government should also
notice and care about."
What do GPs say about
this?
Professor Helen
Stokes-Lampard, Chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs said: "This is
extremely distressing news for hard-pressed GPs and their teams who are working
flat out to do the very best they can for their patients in increasingly
difficult circumstances. But while we are very disappointed in these figures,
they are hardly surprising as what we are seeing now is symptomatic of the
inevitable effects of a decade of underinvestment in our family doctor service
- and just not having enough GPs in the system to meet demand.”
A Department of
Health and Social Care spokesman said: "Just last year, the NHS was rated
as the best and safest health system in the world by independent experts and,
as this report itself points out, the majority of patients are satisfied with
the NHS."
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The survey was conducted
by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and analysed by the
Nuffield Trust and the King's Fund. A nationally representative
sample of 3,004 people in England, Scotland and Wales were asked about their
overall satisfaction with the NHS and 1,002 of them were also questioned about
their satisfaction with individual NHS services.
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