66% of NHS staff believe the government are handling the NHS badly, with just 25% expecting the health service to improve

Key takeaways

  • 87% of NHS staff describe the NHS as currently being in a weak state
  • 66% of those working in the health service believe Labour are badly handling the NHS, up 13 points since last February, with just 25% believing the government’s policies will improve the state of the NHS
  • NHS staff think Wes Streeting is doing a bad job as health secretary by 53% to 22%
  • Just 22% of healthcare workers believe the NHS is well prepared for another pandemic

The state of the NHS was one of the key political issues that propelled Labour to power at the last election, with 50% of those who backed the party saying that, of Labour’s “first steps for change”, cutting NHS waiting times should have been the topmost priority.

Nearly two years on, the public’s view of the health service is still mostly negative, with 59% of Britons giving a bad rating to NHS services as a whole in our latest tracker data, though this is down a full fifteen points since Labour came to power. But while the view from the outside might have improved slightly, how do those working within the NHS feel about the state of the health service?

NHS staff are largely negative about the present condition of the service, with nearly nine in ten (87%) describing the NHS as currently being in a weak state, relative to only 10% believing it to be in a strong state. These are figures are largely unchanged from our previous study of healthcare workers last February.

The current government is increasingly getting at least part of the blame for this state, with 66% of health workers saying that Labour are badly handling the NHS, up thirteen points since early last year. While this does still compare favourably to a near-unchanged 89% describing the last Conservative government as having poorly run the health service, it is relative to just 24% believing Labour are doing a good job at managing the NHS, a decrease of six points since last February.

Wes Streeting’s performance rating among NHS staff has likewise worsened, with 53% now saying he is doing a bad job as health secretary, up thirteen points since February 2025, while just 22% believe he is doing a good job.

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There is also growing pessimism that the current government is going to make the NHS better, with staff more likely to believe that Labour’s policies will worsen the state of the NHS (40%) than improve it (25%), figures largely unchanged from our previous survey. A further 28% still anticipate Labour’s policies having little effect either way.

What do NHS staff believe are the biggest problems facing the service?

Internally, increasing demand and insufficient funding are seen as the most pressing issues facing the NHS, with nearly half of staff (46-48%) identifying them as being among the biggest causes of problems for the service in recent years, while 43% say the same of staff shortages.

Around a third of NHS staff (35%) believe that poor management is one of the leading causes of problems for the service, with between 18-21% putting including bad government policy, privatisation, and bureaucracy in their list of top issues.

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic continue to linger, with 14% of NHS staff saying that Covid-19 is one of the biggest causes of the NHS’s current problems – previously published YouGov research showed that roughly seven in ten healthcare workers think the health service is poorly prepared for another pandemic.

Do NHS staff believe the service needs major reform?

Such is the perceived state of the NHS from those working in it that nearly half (46%) believe the organisation needs major structural changes to how it is run, with a similar proportion (47%) thinking it needs significant reforms in at least some areas, though not wholesale change. A negligible proportion of staff (2%) feel the NHS needs little to no change in how it is run.

See the full results here

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Photo: Getty

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