80% of people in Britain believe the NHS need to be protected from funding cuts

Four out of 5 Britons want the NHS spared from more austerity. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

4 out of five men and women in Britain think the NHS ought to be protected from government investing cuts, according to a survey which reaffirmed the high degree of affection in which the services is held.

Asked which two or three regions of public spending should be exempt from a lot more austerity, respondents identified the NHS and healthcare (79%), schools (51%), care for the elderly (51%), the police (39%) and social providers (21%).

Some 49% agreed that the NHS should be provided a lot more cash “so that it can carry on to supply solutions in the same way it does at the second”, even though only seven% backed additional rationing of care, in investigation undertaken by Ipsos MORI. Asked to identify the biggest problem facing the NHS, 38% said lack of sources, 27% identified understaffing and 24% mentioned extended waiting occasions.

Regardless of a series of care scandals such as Mid Staffs, Morecambe Bay and Winterbourne See, the NHS remains the point that makes most men and women proud to be British. In all 52% recognized the NHS as that institution, much more than the armed forces (47%), royal family members (33%), Crew GB (26%) and the BBC (22%). That 52% is seven% up on 2012, when Ipsos MORI final asked that question.

But concern about the NHS’s long term is increasing. A single in four (24%) mentioned it was one of the most important concerns facing the nation, a increased figure than in 2012.

Some 67% rated the good quality of their healthcare as good, with another 17% describing it as really good. But 73% believe that the problems uncovered at Stafford Hospital, scene of the service’s biggest scandal in years, exist in some, most or all other hospitals.

Britons are also among the most unfavorable internationally about how sustainable their well being services are, given the NHS is facing increasing demand and even more years of tight budgets. In the survey of public viewpoint in 20 nations only 9% said they expected the high quality of healthcare on supply to increase, even though 43% mentioned “get worse”.

80% of people in Britain believe the NHS need to be protected from funding cuts