Thursday, April 3, 2025

Good morning, It's good to be back!

I see my colleague Rachel Klun has kept you very well informed over the past three months, so I hope you haven’t missed me too much. This will be my ninth year as a health journalist, and for each of those years, NHS England has been in existence – so I was shocked to see the big announcement of its abolition. I’ll be delving into what this shift will mean for patients and the service very soon.

For now, it appears some things haven’t changed, including the decline in public opinion of the NHS. This week, a major annual poll revealed that the government has a huge hill to climb if it is to improve voters’ opinions before the next election. More on that below. The Independent is also keen to hear from readers with your opinions on the NHS in our regular feature The Independent Debate. Get involved by clicking here.

Now that I’m back, I’m sure I’ve missed a lot, so please do fill me in on everything I should know – particularly the things they don’t want me to know –at rebecca.thomas@independent.co.uk.

Rebecca Thomas

Health Correspondent

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Behind the headlines

Each year, a major poll of the public’s experiences and opinions of the NHS is carried out by the leading UK health think tanks. Since 2010 (and the onset of austerity), public opinion has steadily declined, with dissatisfaction reaching yet another record high. Now, six in ten people report being either quite or very dissatisfied with how the NHS is run – the highest level since the survey was launched in 1983.

The survey warns that the heights of positive public opinion seen under Blair’s Labour government may never be achievable again. In previous years, this would have been a difficult headline for ministers. However, for the new Labour government, the results align with its “NHS is broken” mantra. The timing is also quite convenient, given the recent announcement of plans to abolish NHS England.

While speeches from Wes Streeting or Sir Keir Starmer may not have helped, they clearly cannot be considered the primary drivers of public opinion, which has been in decline for years. One key change in this year’s poll was the dramatic drop in public satisfaction with the length of time it takes to be seen in A&E, which fell to just 12 per cent. This may be something ministers focus on in the future. While much of Labour’s policy so far has centred on bringing elective waiting times back on track, it may be that greater attention will need to be given to A&E services.