The Royal College of Nursing has condemned health leaders and politicians for allowing racism to “flourish” in the NHS, as figures show the huge numbers of incidents of abuse reported by nursing staff.
In the past four years, nursing staff reported racism at work more than 21,000 times, a 78% increase in that time, according to figures obtained by the RCN.
The figures come from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made by the RCN to NHS trusts and health boards across the UK.
In 2025, nursing staff reported 6,812 incidents of racial abuse while working in NHS trusts and health boards across the UK, rising from 3,652 in 2022. Racist incidents became so frequent in 2025 that a member of nursing staff was reporting a new case of racist abuse every 77 minutes across the UK.
The union is warning the situation is far worse than the FOI figures suggest. Dozens of trusts and health boards that did respond have no reportable data on racist incidents, while others shared implausibly low figures or rejected the request outright.
The figures are also likely to be a significant underestimate as many nursing staff will not report incidents due to a lack of faith in their employer to take action, fear of retaliation, or not bothering due to the culture of racial abuse being so normalised.
NHS trusts and health boards must develop far more comprehensive protocols on what action will be taken upon receiving reports of racial abuse. From October, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, NHS trusts will be liable for harassment of their own staff by patients or their families, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it happening.
Calls to the RCN advice line about racist abuse or discrimination rose by 70% between 2022 and 2025. Those reports from nursing staff include patients saying they didn’t want black people caring for their daughter, and abuse from colleagues based on skin colour and nationality.
General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “These findings show a catastrophic rise in the racist abuse faced by nursing staff. It 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 ‘don’t know, don’t care’.
“Nursing staff are the lifeblood of our NHS and social care too, made up of every nationality and ethnicity, coming together to care for patients every day. They are a shining example of a successful, multicultural modern United Kingdom, and they deserve better than for this disgusting racism and abuse to flourish and become so normalised.”
