NHS Racism Complaints Hit Five Year High as Nearly One in Ten Staff Report Discrimination

Racist abuse against NHS staff has reached its highest recorded level in five years, according to official survey data, with radiographers describing patients calling colleagues 'monkeys' and 'dirty foreigners'. The NHS Staff Survey found that 9.26 per cent of workers reported experiencing discrimination from patients or the public in 2025, up from 9.25 per cent the previous year and continuing a steady climb from 7.91 per cent in 2021.

Staff Say Racism Is 'Something You Have To Put up With'

The Society of Radiographers said its own poll of members found incidents of racism have become 'noticeably' more common over the past 18 months. One case involved a man refusing to let a sonographer scan his pregnant wife because of her ethnicity.

Dean Rogers, the union's executive director of industrial strategy and member relations, said the trend was 'unconscionable and unacceptable' and 'a poor reflection on us as a society'. 'The NHS has a diverse workforce, which is one of its strengths,' Rogers said. 'We are clear: discrimination, harassment, racism, bullying or intimidation, whether expressed verbally or in behaviour, is unacceptable and has no place in the NHS.'

Some staff told the union they had come to accept racist remarks as 'something they have to put up with'. Around 21 per cent of the NHS workforce are non-British nationals, the union noted, and roughly one in four registered radiographers trained overseas.

Abusive Patients Face Treatment Refusal Under New NHS Rules

NHS England has responded by introducing new national staff standards, which took effect from July 2026 and will be assessed through the NHS Oversight Framework.

Thomas Simons, chief human resources and organisational development officer at NHS England, said trusts 'must take meaningful action to prevent and respond to racism, support affected staff and ensure there are clear consequences for patients who racially abuse or discriminate against NHS staff'. That includes 'the option to refuse care in non-emergency situations', he said.

The standards mark the first time such expectations have been set nationally, rather than left to individual trusts. Some hospitals had already introduced their own schemes before the national rollout, including 'red card' style warning systems for abusive visitors.

Public Backs Tougher Action on Abusive Patients

The figures have struck a chord with the public. Readers responding to coverage of the poll in The Independent broadly backed a harder line on abusive patients, with one writing that hospitals should 'be nice and be treated, or leave'.

Others pointed to the wider context, arguing that the rise in incidents cannot be separated from the tone of public debate around immigration. The NHS relies heavily on overseas-trained staff to fill persistent workforce gaps, particularly in nursing and diagnostic services.

The scale of the rise, five consecutive years of increase, comes as NHS England ties staff welfare directly to a trust's official performance rating for the first time. That gives hospital leaders a financial and regulatory incentive to act on complaints rather than treat them as isolated incidents.

For patients, the change signals a shift: non-emergency treatment is no longer guaranteed to those who racially abuse the people delivering it. Whether trusts consistently enforce that option, rather than simply having it on paper, is likely to determine whether the new standards change staff experiences on the ground.