Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
Reports to nursing union’s helpline exceed 1,000 in 2025, up sharply from 2022
The number of nurses in the United Kingdom reporting racist incidents at work has jumped by fifty-five percent over three years, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has revealed.
The union projects it will receive more than one thousand calls from nursing staff seeking support after racist abuse this year, compared with nearly seven hundred in 2022.
The incidents recorded by the RCN span the NHS and independent health and social-care sectors and include harassment by colleagues, patients and relatives.
Among the cases cited is a nurse who, after being denied annual leave, was told by her manager that she “should not have come to the UK”.
Another member reported a colleague saying: “I want to remind you that you’re not one of us.” The union also documented patients and family members refusing care from a nurse because “they didn’t want people like her treating them”, and a staff member being told that you can only see Black people’s teeth “when it’s dark”.
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary and chief executive, called the rise a “mark of shame” and emphasised that “every single ethnic-minority nursing professional deserves to go to work without fear of being abused”.
She added that employers have a legal duty to ensure safe work environments and warned that failure to act will drive staff away and adversely affect service delivery.
The union is urging the government to end the use of anti-migrant rhetoric, which it says emboldens racist behaviour, and is calling on health-care employers to prioritise tackling racism by working with unions and establishing stronger protection mechanisms for staff.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care responded that the figures are “shocking”, affirmed that racism and discrimination “will not be tolerated in our NHS”, and announced that the prime minister has ordered an urgent review of all forms of racism in the health-service workforce.
The data indicate an average of three helpline calls per day — or around ninety per month — by ethnic-minority nursing professionals.
The RCN cautions that the true scale of the problem is likely significantly higher, as most incidents go unreported.
As workplaces across the UK confront this trend, nursing staff and unions call for immediate action to reverse the rising tide of hostility and protect a diverse workforce that the health-care system depends on.
The union projects it will receive more than one thousand calls from nursing staff seeking support after racist abuse this year, compared with nearly seven hundred in 2022.
The incidents recorded by the RCN span the NHS and independent health and social-care sectors and include harassment by colleagues, patients and relatives.
Among the cases cited is a nurse who, after being denied annual leave, was told by her manager that she “should not have come to the UK”.
Another member reported a colleague saying: “I want to remind you that you’re not one of us.” The union also documented patients and family members refusing care from a nurse because “they didn’t want people like her treating them”, and a staff member being told that you can only see Black people’s teeth “when it’s dark”.
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary and chief executive, called the rise a “mark of shame” and emphasised that “every single ethnic-minority nursing professional deserves to go to work without fear of being abused”.
She added that employers have a legal duty to ensure safe work environments and warned that failure to act will drive staff away and adversely affect service delivery.
The union is urging the government to end the use of anti-migrant rhetoric, which it says emboldens racist behaviour, and is calling on health-care employers to prioritise tackling racism by working with unions and establishing stronger protection mechanisms for staff.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care responded that the figures are “shocking”, affirmed that racism and discrimination “will not be tolerated in our NHS”, and announced that the prime minister has ordered an urgent review of all forms of racism in the health-service workforce.
The data indicate an average of three helpline calls per day — or around ninety per month — by ethnic-minority nursing professionals.
The RCN cautions that the true scale of the problem is likely significantly higher, as most incidents go unreported.
As workplaces across the UK confront this trend, nursing staff and unions call for immediate action to reverse the rising tide of hostility and protect a diverse workforce that the health-care system depends on.
