Tony Blair and Labour were re-elected in May this year for an historic third-term, with the electorate telling pollsters they trusted it more than other parties with the future of public services, including the NHS.

Indeed, at least one poll showed that leading up to 5 May, voters considered the future of the NHS the number one issue. The ICM Research survey found 27% of respondents put the health service as the key election issue, with 38% saying Labour had the best policies.

Meanwhile, a Sunday Times-YouGov poll showed 39% believed the NHS had improved since Labour came to power in 1997 - although 31% felt it had become worse.

But just five months on, a new survey suggests optimism about the NHS has evaporated. A recently published Deloitte/MORI Delivery Index on public services reports a rapid decline in expectations.

The most marked fall is in relation to the NHS - in May, MORI found one in three (37%) believed the NHS would improve but now the figure stands at just one in four (26%). Conversely, the number of pessimists have grown, from 28% just after the election to 37% in October.

So how well do these latest figures relate to feeling with the UK's pharma industry? Most people working within pharma follow the fortunes of the NHS more keenly that most - not just as potential patients, but as active stakeholders in improving patient care.

Last year, the Pharmafocus & InPharm Career Survey posed the question to the UK industry: Do you think the NHS can become a world-class healthcare system? The answer which came back was emphatic - a clear majority (56%) said yes, they believed the NHS could be a world-leading provider, with under 30% saying no, and a further 14% undecided.

But one year is a long time in the life of a healthcare system, and as the other surveys show, feeling can shift quickly from optimism to pessimism.

This year's Pharmafocus & InPharm Career Survey is now in full swing, and already building a picture of how things stand one year on.

Will the impending rationalisation and mergers of PCTs, the roll-out of practice based commissioning and payment by results cast gloom over the industry's perception? Or will continued progress on waiting times - and action on access to medicines - consolidate last year's optimism?

You can add your voice along with hundreds of others in the industry by voting in our online poll at: Pharmafocus & InPharm Career Survey 2006.

The survey, to be published in early 2006, will also show which NHS issues are the most significant from the industry's perspective  ranging from the ongoing reform agenda to patient choice and chronic disease management.

Take part now by visiting Pharmafocus & InPharm Career Survey 2006.

pharmafocus@wiley.co.uk