Public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to a twelve-year low – while satisfaction with general practice is at its lowest ever, according to an analysis published today.

Some 24% of people are now unhappy with their local practice, the highest percentage since a national satisfaction survey was undertaken in 1983, according to the analysis. This was twice the 2009 levels.

Overall just 53% of the public are satisfied with the NHS, a three percentage point reduction, the British Social Attitudes Survey showed.

The figures have been extracted from the survey by think-tanks the King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust. In contrast with general practice, levels of satisfaction with in-patient and out-patient services reached their highest level in decades, the analysts report.

Professor John Appleby, from The Nuffield Trust, said: “Satisfaction with general practice – historically the service people were most satisfied with – has been falling for the past decade and is now at its lowest since the BSA survey began over 30 years ago.

“This may reflect continued strain on general practice, with mounting workloads and staff shortages and the evidence shows that people are finding it harder to get appointments than before. The NHS long-term plan expects even more of general practice – these problems will need to be addressed quickly if that vision is to be made possible.”

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said other surveys suggested patients reported “good experience” of their local practice.

She said: “Our workload has escalated, both in terms of volume and complexity, in recent years but the share of the NHS budget general practice receives is less than it was a decade ago and the number of full-time equivalent GPs in England has actually fallen over the last two years.

“The NHS long-term plan has aspirations that will be good for patients – but we will need the workforce to deliver it. There is some great work ongoing to increase recruitment into general practice, and we now have more GPs in training than ever before – but when more family doctors are leaving the profession than entering it we are fighting a losing battle.”