{"id":680549,"date":"2026-05-19T09:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680549\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T09:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:58:08","slug":"racist-abuse-of-nhs-nurses-rising-amid-normalisation-of-extreme-views-rcn-warns-nursing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680549\/","title":{"rendered":"Racist abuse of NHS nurses rising amid \u2018normalisation\u2019 of extreme views, RCN warns | Nursing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Racist abuse of NHS<\/a> nurses has jumped by 86% in the last few years, which their union\u2019s boss has blamed on the normalisation of extreme views in politics and the media.<\/p>\n

One nurse was called a monkey by a colleague, a patient threw a hot drink at a nurse and followed up with racial abuse, and in several cases others were called the N-word, the Royal College of Nursing<\/a> (RCN) disclosed.<\/p>\n

In other examples, a patient\u2019s family told a nurse they did not want black people looking after their daughter, and a fellow NHS worker shouted at a nurse: \u201cWe don\u2019t have people of your colour here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nurses across the UK reported 6,812 incidents last year in which they suffered racist abuse, NHS figures show, a big rise on the 3,652 incidents recorded in 2022. However, it is unclear how many were reported to the police or led to any action being taken, such as a perpetrator being told to seek treatment from a different care provider.<\/p>\n

The RCN warned that poor recording of such abuse by the health service, and reluctance among many nurses to report it, meant the figures \u2013 which it obtained from NHS trusts and health boards under freedom of information (FOI) \u2013 were only \u201cthe tip of the iceberg\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese figures show a catastrophic rise in the racist abuse faced by nursing staff,\u201d said Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN\u2019s general secretary and chief executive.<\/p>\n

While racism had always existed, \u201cthose who hold these views have become more emboldened in recent times\u201d, she said. \u201cIt reflects a further breakdown in societal norms, in part fed by more extreme views being normalised in the mainstream and across media.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings are the latest evidence of what Kate Jarman, the director of corporate affairs at Milton Keynes university hospital trust, last week called \u201ca rising tide of racism<\/a>\u201d washing over the NHS making it unsafe for some staff.<\/p>\n

The former health secretary Wes Streeting warned last November<\/a> that NHS personnel were bearing the brunt of the return in British society of an \u201cugly\u201d racism reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s. An NHS trust boss has said some staff working in the community in England fear some areas have become \u201cno-go zones<\/a>\u201d for them because St George\u2019s flags have been put on display.<\/p>\n

The number of nurses from an ethnic minority background calling the RCN\u2019s advice line seeking help after being racially abused or discriminated against rose by 70% during 2022-25, it said.<\/p>\n

In other incidents, a nurse observing Ramadan and praying while on shift was subject to Islamophobia, and another was punched in the eye and racially abused by patients.<\/p>\n

Ranger said: \u201c[Racism] is a disgrace, and perhaps just as bad is the fact that many NHS trusts and health boards cannot even tell us how many staff have been on the receiving end. It amounts to a policy of \u2018don\u2019t know, don\u2019t care\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozens of NHS organisations did not keep data on racist incidents while others replied to the RCN\u2019s FOI request with \u201cimplausibly low figures\u201d or refused to release any figures. Health chiefs were \u201cfailing in their duty to keep [staff] safe at work\u201d by not collecting such data, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt remains an outrage that NHS [staff] should be subjected to violence and abuse because of who they are,\u201d said Dean Royles, the interim chief executive of NHS Employers. NHS care providers were committed to tackling racism, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, he added.<\/p>\n

NHS bosses planned to introduce a national reporting system to monitor the problem, Royles said.<\/p>\n

A recent FOI trawl by the BBC<\/a> uncovered even more reports by staff of racist abuse in England alone than the RCN found. Figures from the 106 trusts showed that the number of incidents reported increased from 7,002 in 2023 to 8,235 in 2024 \u2013 a 17% rise in a year.<\/p>\n

Duncan Burton, NHS England\u2019s chief nursing officer, said: \u201cRacism against NHS staff is totally unacceptable. All local organisations must take a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, taking action including police involvement and criminal prosecution as appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would encourage any staff that experience or witness racist incidents to report them so that action can be taken. It is essential that all staff feel safe to speak up and confident that action will be taken, and the NHS has set out targeted action required by local organisations including reviewing disciplinary processes and providing protection and comprehensive psychological support for anyone reporting concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Racist abuse of NHS nurses has jumped by 86% in the last few years, which their union\u2019s boss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-680549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}