NHS staff, including radiographer Paul Awah, have told us some patients refuse to be treated by non-white staff — and the professionals say the rise of the far right is to blame

NHS staff have revealed the vile racist jibes they endure amid a surge in abuse from patients.

Staff have seen a disturbing rise in racism from patients over the last 18 months, which emerged in a poll by the Society of Radiographers (SoR). Workers who moved to the UK to help the NHS are forced to deal with daily abuse, which they blame on the rise of the far-right movement.

Figures from the latest NHS Staff Survey, published in March, show 9.26% experienced discrimination at work – a five-year high and up from 7.91% in 2021. The SoR is now calling for the NHS to record incidents of racism and monitor how they are dealt with. The move has been backed by the Royal College of Nursing.

Dad-of-three Paul Awah, 43, an MRI radiographer from Nigeria, told The Mirror he had seen a rise in racist incidents.

He said: “I feel worried and very concerned because in the last year to year-and-a-half, the rhetoric has changed because of the increase of the far-right movement. Sometimes you can see they are awkward to be treated by me. I went to put a cannula in and they were screaming for help.

“But someone else comes who is not as experienced as myself and they were more cooperative. This happened two weeks ago.”

Ifeanyi Obike, 28, was born in Nigeria and moved to the UK in 2022, working as a CT radiographer. He said: “I have a positive personality, so it takes a lot to get at me.”

But Ifeanyi admits he was shocked when one patient exited the room and refused to be treated by him.

He said: “I was walking past the corridor and heard the patient loudly ask my healthcare assistant, ‘Is he the one going to do the examination? She responded, ‘Yes, he’s the one who will be doing the examination’. And he said, ‘That’s it, I’m not having it done. I’m leaving this place’. And he just walked out.”

NHS figures from earlier this year revealed how some 9.26% of staff in 2025 said they personally experienced discrimination at work in the last 12 months from patients or service users. This is up from 9.25% in 2024, 8.57% in 2023, 8.38% in 2022 and 7.91% in 2021.

Thomas Simons, chief human resources and organisational development officer at NHS England, said: “Racist abuse towards NHS staff is completely unacceptable and has no place in our health service. Our new national staff standards are clear that NHS organisations must take meaningful action to prevent and respond to racism, support affected staff and ensure there are clear consequences for patients who racially abuse or discriminate against NHS staff – including the option to refuse care in non-emergency situations.”

Responding to poll of members of Society of Radiographers, showing rise in racist abuse of NHS staff, RCN Associate Director of Employment Relations, Brian Morton, said:

"These findings are utterly appalling and sadly echo the experiences of nursing staff across the country. Our multicultural workforce, made up of every ethnicity and nationality, is a precious thing that should be celebrated. But if we do not take this disgusting and cowardly racist abuse seriously and deal with it head on, we will let down those who care for us and potentially lose them from the health service entirely.

"It is past time for the NHS to start recording incidents of racism on a national scale. That means a standardised method of recording incidents of racial abuse which includes data on the staff group, work areas and ethnicity of the staff member experiencing the abuse.

"Health leaders will only get a grip on this crisis if they fully understand the scale of this problem. Employers who fail to root out racism against their staff must be held to account, including via the new NHS staff standards."