The Health Foundation analysed survey results for 10 high income countries (Image: Getty)
The UK is among the worst-performing of 10 high-income countries when it comes to waits for hospital care, a survey reveals.
Some 11 percent of people who had needed to see a specialist in the last two years and 19 percent of those who had non-emergency surgery waited a year or more here.
The Health Foundation, which took data from the 2023 Commonwealth Fund survey, said only Canada had similarly long waits while the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, the US, France and Sweden all performed better.
Its report also found that waiting times for specialist appointments had risen more rapidly in the UK than in other countries.
Some 61 percent of people reported waiting more than four weeks for a specialist appointment last year, up sharply from 14 percent in 2013.
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Surgeons have called for capital investment to ‘fix crumbling estates’. (Image: Getty)
Ruth Thorlby, the Health Foundation’s assistant director of policy, said the findings showed the UK was “consistently coming near the bottom of the pack on people’s experience of healthcare”.
She added: “It sheds yet more light on just how much work the Government has to do to get the NHS back on its feet.
“The combined effect of the pandemic and below average spending growth has left the NHS in a fragile state.
“The Government is right to prioritise bringing down waiting lists, but that can only be done with a concerted effort to improve primary care and ensuring good coordination between hospitals and GPs.”
The Commonwealth survey collected data from more than 21,000 people, including over 3,000 in the UK.
When asked about GP appointments, 58 percent of Brits said their doctor always or often spent enough time with them, compared with around 80 percent in most other countries.
Some 64 percent of people in the UK said their regular doctor always or often knew important information about them, the lowest percentage of any country except Sweden.
And 26 percent of Brits said they had skipped dental care or dental checkups because of the cost in 2023, up from six percent in 2013.
Meanwhile, the Care Quality Commission’s annual hospital inpatient survey found satisfaction with services remained lower than pre-pandemic levels.
The poll of almost 64,000 people found 43 percent felt their health deteriorated while waiting to be admitted, up from 41 percent in 2022.
Poor discharge experiences were also highlighted. Just 44 percent said they definitely knew what would happen next in their care after leaving hospital.
And only a third of respondents said they were involved “a great deal” in decisions about their discharge – down from 37 percent in 2022.
When asked to rate their overall experience, just over half gave a score of nine or higher out of ten, roughly the same as the previous year.
NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley said there was “a long way to go to restore patient satisfaction with their care”.
“Far too many people face long delays for care and treatment- often at the expense of their health and wellbeing,” he said.
“These frustrations are being compounded at the end of their care when patients are ready to leave hospital too.
“With pressures mounting across the whole health and care system and an ongoing mismatch between capacity and demand, it is vital we pull every lever to get NHS performance back on track.”
Tim Mitchell, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said medics were deeply concerned about patients deteriorating while on waiting lists.
He added: “We can’t get away from the fact that the NHS is in dire need of capital investment to fix crumbling estates and increase surgical capacity – this includes establishing more surgical hubs.
“We also need more surgeons, theatre nurses and anaesthetists. If we don’t see this investment, hundreds of thousands of patients will continue to live in pain on waiting lists.”
A lack of health spending has left the NHS fragile, says RUTH THORLBY
The challenges facing the NHS are well known – hospital waiting times at record levels, overloaded GP surgeries and chronic staff shortages.
The new Labour government has been blunt about the state of the NHS, but it has a huge amount of work to do to fulfil the Prime Minister’s pledge to get the NHS “back on its feet”.
Our analysis of an international survey of the public in 10 high income countries sheds more light on the scale of these challenges and the impact on patients.
The UK is not alone. Every country is trying to look after populations who are living longer, but with more complex health needs. Likewise, every country is still reeling from the painful aftershocks of the pandemic.
But the UK has had a decade of below average growth in health spending, which has left the NHS in an increasingly fragile state.
This is a big factor in why the UK languishes near the bottom compared with many other countries on long waits for specialist care, not enough time with the GP, and problems getting out-of-hours care without going to A&E.
Historically, the UK has performed well on affordability of health care due to our largely free-at-the-point-of-use system, something the British public holds dear.
But increases in people reporting that cost is a barrier to treatment, particularly in dental care, are a cause for concern and risks more health problems down the line.
The Government has been quick to commission a review of NHS performance but has not said how much it will increase investment over the long term.
The NHS needs to change and work better but this will be hard without increased investment in staff, equipment and buildings: many other countries spend more on their health systems.
There are no quick fixes, but the NHS can recover with the right mix of policy change, innovation and investment.
Ruth Thorlby is assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation
