86% of NHS staff see the service as being in a weak state, with just 38% expecting the current government to turn it around
The state of the NHS has long been a dominant political issue, typically being seen as one of the biggest problems facing the country and one of the most important for those who voted Labour at the last election. At present, two-thirds of Britons (65%) would describe NHS services as a whole as bad, compared to a quarter who feel services are currently good.
The public view of the NHS is both clear and negative, but how do those working within the health service see it?
NHS staff are largely negative about the current state of the health service, with 86% describing it as being in a weak state, including 36% who would say it is in a ‘very weak’ state. This compares to just one in eight (12%) believing the NHS is in a strong state at present.
What do NHS staff see as the biggest problems facing the NHS?
When asked what are the biggest causes of the problems facing the NHS today, 50% of health service staff identify insufficient funding as a top issue, while 48% say increasing demand and 46% say staff shortages are the main things to blame for the current state of the NHS.
A third of NHS staff (34%) also see poor management within the health service as a top contributor to its issues, while 22% see bad government policy as one of the NHS’s biggest problems. The legacy of Covid-19 looms large as a problem for the NHS for one in six health service workers (17%), while similar numbers (15-16%) say the same of both privatisation and bureaucracy within the health service.
Speaking in an interview last year, John Bell, the former Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, surprised many by suggesting that he thought the NHS was not underfunded, but rather that it needed to get better at using the money that it does receive.
NHS workers themselves are divided on which they see as a bigger problem for the NHS: 48% think a lack of funding is the larger issue, but 47% say that inefficient use of the NHS budget is a greater cause for concern.
This is, however, more likely to see funding as an issue than the public, with just 37% of all Britons saying that insufficient funding is the more pressing problem for the NHS, compared to 56% who feel the existing budget could be spent more effectively.
NHS workers say there are too many administrators in the health service
The government is planning major cutbacks to NHS England, the body that oversees the day-to-day management of the health service in England, with around half of jobs at the administrative body expected to be cut.
A reduction in managerial roles should go down well with health service staff, half of whom (50%) believe there are too many administrators within the NHS, compared to 23% who say currently levels are about right and just 14% who say there are too few managers.
While patient-facing workers are more likely to feel this way, with 54% believing the NHS has too many administrators, four in ten of those in non-patient-facing roles (40%) also feel the service is overmanaged.
Half of NHS workers say Labour are handling the health service badly, but there is more optimism that improvements will be made in the longer term
As to how the NHS got into such a poor state, health service workers are mostly agreed that the last Conservative government did not do a good job, with 87% feeling they managed the NHS badly, relative to just 8% who feel they handled the health service well.
While the fledgling Labour government are seen as doing a better job, it is still only 30% of NHS staff who feel the current government are managing the health service well, compared to a small majority (53%) who feel they are handling it badly.
Similarly, the 40% who see Wes Streeting as having done a bad job so far as health and social care secretary outnumber the 25% who feel he has done a good job.
While there is negativity to the Labour government so far, NHS workers are more optimistic about longer term changes. A plurality of 38% believe the government’s policies will ultimately improve the state of the NHS, compared to 28% who feel they will make no difference and 26% who believe they’ll make matters worse.
Half of NHS workers report feeling stressed and/or frustrated at work in the past week
That a shortage of staff is one of the top problems with the NHS, is perhaps unsurprising given the negativity many current workers feel. Half of health service staff (49-51%) say they have felt stressed or frustrated at work within the past week, while 29% report feeling anxious. This compares to just 24% describing their mood as happy.
However, this hasn’t dampened enthusiasm for the health service, with three-quarters of health service workers (77%) saying they are proud to work in the NHS, compared to just 6% who feel embarrassed.
Do you think there are too many managers in the NHS? What do you think of the state of the NHS in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
