The Guardian view on a recovering NHS: public confidence has risen, but not enough | Editorial

For the government, the news that public satisfaction with the NHS increased for the first time since 2019 was a huge relief. After 20 difficult months in power, ministers can provide proof that at least one public service is improving, despite doctors’ strikes. The annual survey also reveals that the proportion of people dissatisfied with the social services provided by municipalities has decreased, although the change is less marked here.

Given the low base from which this increase was measured and ongoing problems in many areas, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was careful to temper his obvious joy in a speech on Wednesday, promising further improvements. With the NHS widely seen as his party’s proudest achievement and the UK’s most loved institution, a figure of 26% saying they are satisfied, compared to 51% dissatisfied, looks more like a cause for concern than a celebration.

But judging by these figures, the public seems inclined to accept the government’s narrative that a broken system is being carefully put back together. Given that voters have always trusted Labor more than other parties on health, this makes intuitive sense: the politicians they thought were best to run the NHS are now in charge.

The survey is UK-wide and, as health is devolved, administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales must take responsibility for their much lower satisfaction rates. But in England too, the situation is unequal. Six trusts seen as failing have been warned they should expect either new management teams to be imposed or be forced to merge with more successful neighbors. A project to compare the performance of areas like Manchester, where health is part of a devolution arrangement, with others where services are run along traditional lines, has also been announced. This test of the theory that strengthening local democracy can boost public services should produce interesting results.

Significant and urgent problems remain. On social care, maternity care and mental health issues, ADHD and autism, ministers are awaiting the delivery of three specially commissioned reports. Given the long-standing nature of the welfare system’s problems and the well-documented failures in several maternity hospitals, experts and parts of the public are eager to move beyond diagnosing problems and solving them.

Waiting lists for hospital care have decreased somewhat, but they remain enormous. NHS dentistry has probably never been in such a weak state. And although ministers have decided not to reimpose multiple targets, which could distort practices and incentives, waiting times in A&E sectors remain a crucial indicator for the public. This week, resident doctors rejected the government’s latest pay offer and voted for another strike.

For all its faults, the NHS remains one of the fairest health systems in the world and it is good that more people feel positive about its ability to meet their needs. Over time, a loss of confidence, leading to private sector growth, could become an existential threat. For this reason, all supporters of publicly funded health care should be concerned about the finding that younger voters appear to have less confidence in it than older ones. Having declared the NHS “broken”, Mr Streeting and his colleagues must hurry to make their repairs.

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