Britons gloomiest globally about future healthcare services, survey reveals

Britons are the gloomiest people in the world regarding the future of their nation's healthcare services, a survey has suggested.

Eight per cent of British respondents said they felt the quality of their healthcare would improve over coming years, compared with 29% globally.

The ranking placed the UK behind the likes of Russia, Poland and the United States, where 24% of Americans asked said they felt their healthcare would improve.

The findings come at a time when President Donald Trump is threatening to scrap his predecessor Barack Obama's landmark "Obamacare" measures, aimed at improving access to health services for lower-income citizens.

The findings, compiled in a comprehensive study of global trends by the market research firm Ipsos Mori, asked more than 18,000 participants in 23 countries about their attitudes to topics spanning politics, technology, health, sport, shopping and general outlook.

Despite the pessimism felt towards the future of their healthcare, 73% of Britons considered themselves to be in good health last year, making the UK population the fifth most satisfied with their general health behind Indonesia, South Africa, India and the United States.

But only 43% of Britons were satisfied with their weight over the same period, with 38% saying they were actively unhappy about their size.

Britons were also among the most downbeat respondents when comparing their lives to those of their parents.

Some one in 10 British respondents said they thought their children's chances of owning their own home would be better than their parents' generation, placing them at the bottom of the table below South Korea, Spain, Japan and Australia in the bottom five.

A significant proportion of Britons (62%) also felt that their exposure to crime was worse than their elders', and 72% said they felt today's youth were set for a worse retirement.

But Britons were generally positive about their standard of living, with 54% saying they were satisfied in 2016, compared with 20% of respondents who said they were not.

This placed the UK above the likes of Spain, Germany, and France, with 27% of French participants saying they were happy with their standard of life.