Wes Streeting said there is ‘so much more to do’ to fix the NHS as satisfaction in the health service hit a record low. Patients being treated in hospital corridors is the shame of the NHS, Wes Streeting has said, as a new poll indicates satisfaction with the health service has hit a record low.
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The health secretary, who has spent this week visiting accident and emergency departments across the country amid a surge of flu cases, said he was left feeling a “combination of pride and shame”. He said he met one patient – an elderly woman – who had spent 30 hours in a corridor on a trolley.
The health secretary’s remarks come as a new survey found that just 31 per cent of adults are satisfied with the service provided by GPs and hospitals – a historic low for NHS satisfaction ratings. The previous low for public satisfaction was 34 per cent in 1997, just before Tony Blair took office.
Just 27 per cent of those aged 35 to 44 were satisfied with the NHS, while the figure was just 26 per cent for those suffering from a long-term health condition. Mr Streeting said: “Under the Conservatives, the ‘NHS winter crisis’ came as consistently as the John Lewis ads and the Coca-Cola truck. No wonder [The] Sunday Times poll shows public satisfaction in the NHS at rock bottom.”.
