NHS Discrimination at 5-Year High: 9.26% of Staff Face Racism, Workforce at Risk

For HR leaders, the NHS's spiralling staff discrimination figures are a flashing red alert. When 9.26% of employees—many from overseas—report racist abuse from patients, the employer's duty of care is under direct assault. The loss of psychological safety corrodes the entire employee value proposition, risking increased turnover, higher vacancy rates, and costly recruitment cycles at a time the health service can least afford them.

The National Health Service, long reliant on international recruitment to fill critical staffing gaps, is confronting a corrosive rise in patient racism that threatens its most fundamental principles. A Special Report by the Daily Mirror, based on a Society of Radiographers (SoR) poll and personal testimonies, reveals that frontline radiographers—many of whom moved to the UK specifically to support the NHS—are enduring a surge in discriminatory abuse from patients. The latest NHS Staff Survey, published in March 2026, marks a five-year high: 9.26% of staff reported personally experiencing discrimination at work from patients or service users in the previous 12 months, up sharply from 7.91% in 2021. This increase, concentrated over the last 18 months, aligns with what staff describe as a shift in public rhetoric fuelled by the far-right movement.

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The latest NHS Staff Survey, published in March 2026, marks a five-year high: 9.26% of staff reported personally experiencing discrimination at work from patients or service users in the previous 12 months, up sharply from 7.91% in 2021.

The personal stories are jarring. Paul Awah, a 43-year-old MRI radiographer and father of three from Nigeria, recounted an incident just two weeks before the article's publication where a patient screamed for help as he attempted to insert a cannula, yet cooperated calmly with a less-experienced white colleague. Ifeanyi Obike, a 28-year-old CT radiographer who moved to the UK in 2022, described a patient loudly refusing examination upon seeing him and walking out of the facility. These are not isolated anecdotes; the SoR poll indicates a disturbing pattern across the profession. The emotional toll on clinicians is immense—Awah expressed deep worry and concern—and the operational impact is direct: refusal of care delays diagnostics, wastes resources, and destabilizes team morale.

The implications extend far beyond individual incidents. The NHS currently employs over 200,000 internationally educated professionals, with substantial numbers from Nigeria, India, and the Philippines. A hostile work environment undermines the UK's ability to retain these essential workers at a time when the health service faces 112,000 vacancies. The psychological safety of staff is a core component of patient safety; distracted, distressed, or demoralised clinicians make more errors. Yet the current approach is reactive at best. The Society of Radiographers is now demanding that the NHS systematically record incidents of patient racism and monitor how they are resolved—a call backed by the Royal College of Nursing. Without standardised recording, the true scale remains hidden, and perpetrators face no consequences.