Does personal politics affect attitudes towards the NHS?

There’s no escaping the fact that the NHS and politics are bound up together. And that’s no surprise given the history of its birth, the way we pay for the NHS, and the inevitable role of politicians in shaping policy—and, of course, how much funding it receives.

But what about the converse? Does the political party with which you identify influence your attitude towards the NHS? Do people’s views about the NHS transcend both personal politics and the party in power?

The latest results from the long running British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey (carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, with some questions about the NHS sponsored by the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund) provides some of the answers.1

Conducted last year, the BSA survey once again asked the question: “All in all, how satisfied or dissatisfied would you say you are with the way in which the NHS runs nowadays?” It also asks respondents which (if any) political party they most identified with (not voting intention). Figure 1 shows the responses.