Highlights
- 37 verified incidents in 2024
- 71 verified incidents in 2025 - a 92 per cent rise
- 29 verified incidents between January and June 2026
VERIFIED anti-Muslim hate incidents in NHS settings nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025, marking a sharp rise in hostile incidents within the healthcare provider.
Latest figures published on Wednesday (9) by Tell MAMA, the charity monitoring anti-Muslim hate, revealed 71 verified incidents in 2025, a 92 per cent increase on the 37 verified incidents recorded in 2024.
According to the organisation, elevated levels seen in 2025 are persisting into the current year, as 29 verified incidents were recorded between January and June 2026.
It said the figures cover a range of hostile behaviour, including targeted verbal abuse, systemic discrimination and targeted harassment. The incidents took place across GP surgeries, outpatient clinics, hospital wards and emergency departments, and affected Muslim patients, visiting families and NHS staff.
"I chose medicine to protect and care for people when they need it most. When I called his name, my only thought was how to help him. Having my faith weaponised against me in front of a crowded room was deeply degrading. At that moment he pointed at my headscarf (hijab) and called me a 'terrorist' and the entire waiting area fell silent. Everyone stared," said an NHS doctor who was targeted by anti-Muslim hatred.
"Suddenly, the years of studying and exhausting shifts meant nothing; I wasn't seen as a doctor, but as a threat. The raw hatred in his voice, suggesting that my headscarf somehow made me dangerous to the very patients I am dedicated to serving, stripped away my sense of safety and professional identity in seconds."
Recommendations for the NHS
In the wake of these latest findings, the charity has called for NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards to audit and reinforce existing incident-reporting frameworks to better support affected staff and patients.
It also sought direct reporting routes to Tell MAMA integrated clearly within standard NHS complaints, patient liaison (PALS) and safeguarding procedures, along with mandatory, continuous cultural competency and hate-crime awareness training for all frontline and public-facing NHS staff.
The organisation has additionally called for continuous, formalised data-sharing protocols between NHS bodies and independent monitoring networks to establish the true scale of underreporting.
Iman Atta OBE, director of Tell MAMA, said, "Hospitals and GP surgeries should be places of safety and care for everyone, regardless of faith. These figures show that anti-Muslim prejudice is following people into some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives, and that is unacceptable. We are calling on NHS trusts to take this data seriously and to strengthen reporting pathways and staff training so that both patients and healthcare workers are properly protected."
We will continue to work closely with UK police forces, NHS leadership bodies and local community partners to support victims, demand accountability for perpetrators and enforce structural changes across the public sector, the charity said in a statement.
