Notes to editors
- Since 1983, the National Centre for Social Research’s (NatCen) BSA survey has asked members of the public across England, Scotland, and Wales about their views on the NHS and health and care issues generally. The latest survey was carried out between July and October 2019 and asked a nationally representative sample of 3,224 people about their satisfaction with the NHS overall, and 1075 people about their satisfaction with individual NHS and social care services. The King’s Fund and The Nuffield Trust sponsor these health questions and summarise the headline results.
- We publish at a time of unprecedented crisis facing the health services, the economy and society in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic. The timing of the survey means it is important to bear in mind that the results reflect attitudes before the emergence of coronavirus. How this pandemic unfolds over the coming months and the way the NHS and care organisations respond are factors likely to influence results from future BSA surveys.
- The main question asked was ‘All in all, how satisfied or dissatisfied would you say you are with the way in which the National Health Service runs nowadays?’ and the response options were ‘very satisfied’, ‘quite satisfied’, ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’, ‘quite dissatisfied’ and ‘very dissatisfied’. Satisfaction as reported here aggregates those who answer 'very' and 'quite' satisfied. The survey methodology is based on a randomly selected sample of the British public and is conducted via a face-to-face interview with multiple follow up requests to non-responders. It includes those who had recent contact with the NHS and those who had not. The order in which topics are covered in the survey, and the order in which questions on the NHS are asked, have not changed in recent years.
- For the first time, the 2019 BSA survey also measures whether there are differences in satisfaction between users and non-users of a range of health and care services. In addition, we include survey questions relating to funding of the NHS, which were previously published separately.
- The analysis of the BSA health results was carried out by John Appleby, Nina Hemmings, David Maguire, Jessica Morris, Laura Schlepper, Dan Wellings. It will be published on both the Nuffield Trust and King’s Fund websites at 00.01 on Friday 3 April 2020, with a link to the report from the NatCen website. Previous survey reports can be viewed here: kingsfund.org.uk/projects/public-satisfaction-nhs
- The Nuffield Trust is an independent think tank aiming to improve the quality of health care in the UK by providing evidence-based research and policy analysis.
- The King’s Fund is an independent charity working to improve health and care in England.
- The National Centre for Social Research, Britain’s largest independent social research organisation, helps government and charities make the right decisions by listening to the public and making sure their voice is heard. By really understanding the complexity of people’s lives and attitudes, it aims to give the public a powerful role in shaping decisions and services that make a difference to everyone.
For further information, or to request an interview with Professor John Appleby or Dan Wellings, please contact the Nuffield Trust press office:
Fiona Johnson: fiona.johnson@nuffieldtrust.org.uk, 07825 510527 or Meilir Jones: meilir.jones@nuffieldtrust.org.uk, 07795410433.