The NHS has experienced an unprecedented collapse in public confidence in family doctors and dentists, according to landmark polling from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey.
The annual poll of 4,700 adults, conducted since 1983, reveals striking insights into over four decades of NHS history—its decline under Thatcher, rise under New Labour, and subsequent collapse following Tory austerity and a global pandemic.
GP and dentist satisfaction plummet
Satisfaction with GPs stood at around 80% for much of the polling period but collapsed to just over 30% in the last decade under the Conservatives and has not recovered. Dentist satisfaction is even worse, at 21% after a gradual decline from 73% in 1983.
Election guru Sir John Curtice, BSA co-author, said: "The principal source of the public’s high level of dissatisfaction with the NHS is much the same today as it was when New Labour was in power – they feel it takes too long to access the care they need. However, whereas under New Labour this concern was focused on the time it took to get a hospital appointment, now it extends to all parts of the NHS including GPs."
Historical trends in satisfaction
New analysis shows overall satisfaction in the NHS tended to fall when the Conservative Party was in power and rise when Labour was in office. GP services, previously considered "the jewel in the crown of the health service," started to decline from 77% satisfaction in 2010 down to 68% in 2019, before collapsing during the pandemic to 31% when Labour came to power in 2024. The latest survey shows a slight improvement to 35% for 2025.
Dentistry confidence has fared even worse, falling from over 70% in the 1980s to around 50% in the early 2000s, before falling off a cliff around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic to 20% in 2024. Last year under Labour this improved slightly to 22%.
Challenge for Andy Burnham
Sir John says Andy Burnham faces a unique challenge to change "the relationship between society and the NHS" at a time of a collapse in social care and an aging population. The professor of politics at Strathclyde University said: "One of the key lessons is… although there is a broader headline [that] New Labour succeeded, it took quite a while. Indeed it took arguably three terms of government.
"Essentially the government is trying to change the relationship between society and the NHS - saying we want to improve the nation’s health, and we want to move services out of the [hospitals] while we are trying to [improve] productivity. These are all pretty knotty problems. The government is acknowledging that it is a two term or even a three term challenge and one of the uncertainties it faces is whether it will enjoy the luxury of the three terms that New Labour did eventually enjoy."
Conservative record under scrutiny
During a media briefing, Sir John made a startling admission in response to a question of whether overall satisfaction in the health service had EVER seen sustained improvement under a Conservative government since 1983. Sir John told the Mirror: "No, I think is the answer to your question."
The Tories were in power for 26 of the 42 years that the BSA survey has been running.
NHS decline before Labour revival
When the BSA survey started in 1983, the Tories had already been in power for six years under Margaret Thatcher, and 55% of the population were "satisfied" with the NHS. By the time the Tories were voted out in 1997 following seven years under John Major’s leadership, it had fallen further to 34%.
Sir John said: "The levels of satisfaction under the Thatcher and Major governments was actually for the most part consistently lower than it was for the Cameron-Osborne and even into the [Theresa] May period."
New Labour was in power from 1997 to 2010, and when they left office public satisfaction with the NHS was at an all-time high of 70%. Sir John said: "We should be clear that the level of satisfaction was very high in 2010 just after New Labour. If one were wanting to defend the position of the Conservatives after 2010, they inherited a health service where the levels of satisfaction were so high, there was only one direction which it could go."
NHS hit by Tory austerity and pandemic
A slow decline in the NHS was seen during the years of David Cameron’s government, with satisfaction dropping to around 60% by 2015. During this period, NHS hospital trusts hit by shrinking real-terms budgets racked up huge debts and halted capital projects, such as building maintenance, in an effort to maintain the quality of service they offered patients.
Covid-19 hit in 2019, and by the time it was over in 2022 a record low of 29% said they were satisfied with the NHS while 51% were dissatisfied. A year later, in the last survey before the 2024 General Election, the situation had slightly worsened with only 24% satisfied and 52% dissatisfied.
Dissatisfaction eventually reached an all-time high of 59% in the 2024 survey conducted three months after the election when Labour regained power. The 2025 survey showed dissatisfaction had fallen to 51% after the first year of Labour being back in power. This is strikingly similar to the 50% level New Labour inherited after the 1997 election.
Sir John said: "The tight fiscal backdrop and the ageing of the population means that turning the NHS around looks more challenging than it was 25 years ago."
The BSA survey is published by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) with the King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust. Co-author Danielle Jefferies, of The King’s Fund, said: "The lesson from the New Labour years is that restoring public confidence in the NHS is possible, but it is not quick. Even with rising satisfaction early on and major spending increases, it took 13 years to reach its peak.
"The challenge now is broader and the money tighter, but there are early signs of improvement, and with sustained focus on access, productivity and the basics of care, the NHS can begin to build back satisfaction."
