Satisfaction with the state of the NHS is at its lowest on record despite a vow from the Health Secretary to make the service the "envy of the once again".

The British Social Attitudes survey has shown a "startling collapse" in public satisfaction with the with only 21% now satisfied with it. Some 59% of adults say they are dissatisfied with the health service, up 7% points in a year and the highest level on record. A&E and dentistry are two areas people are least happy with. Health Secretary says the annual poll by respected thinktanks the King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust which questioned people last summer shows the NHS was “broken” when came to power.

Writing in the today, Mr Streeting says: “It's hardly surprising, when patients have faced the longest waiting lists in history and the daily 8am scramble for a GP appointment, which far too many Mirror readers will be familiar with.”

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A&E dissatisfaction was up 15% in a year to 52%, while satisfaction down to 19% - the highest on record. Dentistry dissatisfaction was up 7% to 55% with satisfaction at 20% - the lowest on record. GP satisfaction is also the lowest on record at 31%.

Dan Wellings, senior fellow at the King's Fund, said: "For too many people the NHS has become difficult to access: how can you be satisfied with a service you can't get into? In 2010, seven out of 10 people were satisfied with the NHS - it is now down to only one in five. The scale of the decline over the last few years has been dramatic."

Nuffield Trust policy analyst Mark Dayan said: "These figures make clear that since 2019 and through the Covid-19 pandemic we saw a startling collapse in NHS satisfaction. This was no aberration: it is continuing even today. It is by far the most dramatic loss of confidence in how the NHS runs that we have seen in 40 years of this survey."

The headline finding of the survey, which covers England, and Wales, found only 21% are now satisfied with the NHS which is down from 24% last year and the lowest proportion since the survey began in 1983.

The survey also showed:

• Satisfaction with NHS dentistry "has continued to collapse", with levels at a record low of 20%, compared with 60% in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, while dissatisfaction levels (55%) are a record high.

• Some 52% of adults are dissatisfied with A&E services, a record high and up 14 percentage points from 38% in 2023, while 19% are satisfied, a record low and down 12 points from 31%; it means A&E is the NHS service with the lowest satisfaction levels for the first time.

• Some 31% of adults are satisfied with their GP services, the lowest level on record, while 49% said they were very or quite dissatisfied.

• There is also widespread unhappiness with NHS waiting times, with 62% dissatisfied with the length of time it takes to get a GP appointment, 65% dissatisfied with waits for hospital appointments, and 69% dissatisfied with waits to be seen in A&E.

• people want more money spent on the NHS, with 44% saying too little cash is spent and an additional 25% saying far too little is spent. Increasing tax and spending to fund the health service was favoured by 46% of respondents.

• Only 11% of people agreed there are enough staff in the NHS, with a huge 72% disagreeing.

The survey was carried out between September 16 and October 27 2024 among 2,945 adults across Britain. It suggests there was no bounce back in public confidence in the months immediately following Labour's victory at the in July 2024.

Instead, an accompanying report suggests the public now agree with Prime Minister Sir and Health Secretary Wes Streeting that the NHS is "broken". The study said: "The last time the held office, satisfaction was at an astonishingly high 70% - 49% points higher than the latest result and a figure that feels almost unreachable in today's more pessimistic times.”

Report author Bea Taylor, fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said: “Support for the core principles of the NHS - free at the point of use, available to all and funded by taxation - endures despite the collapse in satisfaction. Harnessing this support and fixing the foundations of the NHS must be central to the Government's forthcoming reform programme."

Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, , said: “We are deeply concerned by the findings from the latest British Social Attitudes survey, and yet it paints a picture we are now all too familiar with; a health service under immense strain, with public satisfaction with the NHS at an all-time low. We hear first-hand from patients daily across the UK who are facing delays in treatments, uncertainty about their health and distressing experiences when seeking urgent care. Behind these statistics are real people who need to be able to rely on their health service.

“Despite these challenges, public support for the NHS remains strong, with the majority still backing its founding principles. However, unless decisive action is taken, patient dissatisfaction will continue to rise, and the most vulnerable will bear the brunt of a system under pressure."

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, said: "These figures must be a wake-up call for the NHS."

I’ll always be honest about the state of our health service. When we came into office, I said the NHS was broken, and the annual British Social Attitudes survey – released today but taken in September – shows patients agree. It's hardly surprising, when patients have faced the longest waiting lists in history and the daily 8am scramble for a GP appointment, which far too many Mirror readers will be familiar with.

Fixing our NHS will take time. And money. That is why the Chancellor took the tough but fair decisions necessary at the Budget to allow us to put extra investment – a record £26 billion - into the NHS and get it off life support. We’ve ended the crippling strikes so that doctors are back on the front line, rather than the picket line. We’ve delivered our promise of an extra two million appointments – seven months early. And we’re opening more surgical hubs and community diagnostic centres so people can access healthcare closer to home.

We didn’t relish increasing taxes. But the alternative was leaving our NHS without the investment it needed. By voting against the Budget, the Conservatives, Reform and the Lib Dems were voting to cut the NHS. Labour is cutting waiting lists instead. We’ve laid the foundations to rebuild our NHS but the problems can’t just be solved by money. To fix our NHS and make it fit for the future, investment must go together with reform.

Our upcoming 10 Year Health Plan will transform the NHS. While some will be uncomfortable with the pace and scale of the changes, today’s survey shows the patients will not settle for more of the same. We have to go further and faster.

Since the survey was done, waiting lists have fallen for five months in a row, and we’ve negotiated new deals with both GPs and pharmacists, providing them with record investment in exchange for easier access for patients. There is still a long way to go, but through our Plan for Change, we have put the NHS back on the road to recovery, so that it can become the envy of the world once again.