Highlights
- Nursing staff reported 6,812 racist incidents in 2025, up from 3,652 in 2022.
- RCN warns real figures are far higher due to widespread under-reporting.
- From October, NHS employers will be legally liable for harassment of staff by patients.
The incidents paint a disturbing picture of what many nurses face on a daily basis. One nurse was called a monkey by a colleague.
A patient threw a hot drink at a nurse and then followed it with racial abuse. In one case, a patient's family said they did not want black nurses looking after their relative.
A colleague told another nurse: "We don't have people of your colour here." A nurse observing Ramadan was targeted with Islamophobia while on shift.
Another nurse was punched in the eye and racially abused by a patient. These are not isolated cases.
The RCN says calls to its advice line from ethnic minority nurses seeking help after facing racist abuse or discrimination went up by 70 per cent between 2022 and 2025.
Former health secretary Wes Streeting had warned last November that NHS staff were bearing the brunt of what he described as an "ugly" return of racism in British society, reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s.
His comments came as a growing number of NHS leaders began raising similar concerns about the safety of staff, particularly those working in communities where hostility towards minority ethnic workers has become more visible.
Trusts fall short
Despite how serious the problem is, the RCN says these numbers are only the tip of the iceberg.
Many NHS trusts and health boards either had no data on racist incidents, gave figures the RCN described as implausibly low, or simply refused to share any information at all.
On top of that, many nurses do not report what happens to them. Some fear they will face retaliation. Others feel that reporting will lead to nothing being done.
Some say racist behaviour has become so common that they no longer see the point in flagging it.
A separate Freedom of Information trawl by the BBC found even higher numbers.
Figures from 106 NHS trusts in England showed incidents rose from 7,002 in 2023 to 8,235 in 2024, a 17 per cent increase in just one year.
RCN chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said the rise in abuse reflected "a further breakdown in societal norms, in part fed by more extreme views being normalised in the mainstream and across media."
She called the situation "a disgrace" and said NHS leaders were running what amounted to a policy of "don't know, don't care."
The RCN has also criticised the use of anti-migrant language by politicians, warning it has helped make racist behaviour more brazen.
It said changes to rules on Indefinite Leave to Remain had unfairly targeted migrant nursing staff.
From October, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, NHS employers will be legally responsible for harassment of their staff by patients or patients' families. They will need to show they took all reasonable steps to stop it from happening.
