Clapping for the NHS in the COVID pandemic may have been “dangerous” because “no organisation can be a national religion”, the health service ombudsman has said.
Rebecca Hilsenrath also warned that “no organisation should be beyond constructive criticism”.
Ms Hilsenrath is the parliamentary and health service ombudsman, whose office investigates complaints against government departments, public organisations and the NHS in England.
She has submitted evidence to a review of the NHS launched by the new government, with the probe being headed by Professor Lord Ara Darzi.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has declared the NHS “broken” and wants to reform the health service to fix it.
Ms Hilsenrath told The Sunday Telegraph: “There is an argument I have heard that clapping for the NHS during the pandemic was quite a dangerous thing to do … because no organisation can be a national religion, and no organisation should be beyond constructive criticism.
“I don’t think that it is helpful for any organisation to be treated as religion.”
Statistics show the ombudsman received 27,479 complaints about the NHS in England in 2023/24 – with around 66% of these at least partly upheld.
This compares to 17,964 complaints lodged in 2013/14 period.
The number of complaints has been on an upward trajectory since then, although it dropped significantly from 24,560 in the 2019/20 period to 18,727 in the 2020/21 period – which covered the start of the COVID pandemic.
It returned to 26,907 complaints in the 2021/22 period.
Ms Hilsenrath said this “does speak to a change in attitude towards the NHS and a far lower degree of happiness with services”.
“Of course, people were enormously grateful for the extraordinary efforts that people in NHS went to during that time, including risking their own personal safety.
“I also know that the national mood has changed since then, and I think it’s incredibly difficult as an NHS worker to consistently read about the failings in your service, and how you’re letting people down.”
The public perception of the NHS – including waiting lists and access to service – was a key issue in the general election campaign.
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The ombudsman pointed out that there was “a lack of consistency” in the NHS, adding that “the ultimate price for failure is tragedy”.
She said: “When big things go wrong and terrible things happen you get the NHS saying ‘never again’, but actually it’s just not true.”
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The way the health service is regulated is in “urgent need of reform” with a “vast amount of duplication” currently in place.
She suggested the high number of regulators leads to the NHS getting “faced by multiple recommendations” from different bodies – branding the model “a grossly inefficient way to run anything”.
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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The NHS is broken but we are determined to get it back on its feet so it can be there for all of us when we need it.
“We will be honest about the challenges facing the health service and will work to tackle them.
“The independent investigation into the NHS by Lord Darzi is a step towards identifying and solving these problems as we create an NHS fit for the future.”
