NHS satisfaction levels increased in 2012, study shows

Satisfaction with the performance of the NHS levelled out in 2012 following a turbulent 2011, according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey by The King's Fund.

According to the thinktank's data, 61 percent of UK people were happy with the running of the NHS last year, which was the third-highest level since the survey was launched in 1983.

This comes after the figure dropped from 70 percent in 2010 to 58 percent in 2011, coinciding with cuts to NHS budgets and high-profile discussions of the government's health service reforms.

It suggests that public concerns about these matters levelled off to some extent last year, with satisfaction levels showed to be generally consistent among supporters of all three main political parties.

John Appleby, chief economist at The King's Fund, said: "With no real change in satisfaction with the NHS in 2012, this suggests the record fall in 2011 was not a blip and that the ground lost may take some time to recover."

This report comes in the same week that the NHS underwent some of its most drastic reforms since its inception with the advent of new changes detailed in the Health and Social Care Act, including the abolition of primary care trusts.