Analysis by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) reveals a 55 % increase in reports from nurses experiencing racist incidents at work between 2022 and 2025, signalling a deepening challenge for the UK health-care sector.
The RCN’s advice-line is projected to handle over 1,000 calls in 2025 from nurses seeking help after racist abuse — up from nearly 700 in 2022. The union reports that during 2025 it receives on average three calls a day from nursing staff from the Global Majority working across the NHS and independent health and social care sectors.
Harrowing examples underline scale of the problem
The RCN has documented multiple disturbing cases of racist abuse: one nurse was told by her manager, after being denied annual leave, “you shouldn’t have come to the UK”. Another was told by a colleague: “I want to remind you that you’re not one of us”. Patient-related abuse was also cited: a nurse repeatedly refused by a patient family who reportedly said they did not want “people like her” treating them, and called the nurse a “slave”. Another was told that you could only see Black people’s teeth “when it’s dark”.
Union demands the focus shift to root causes and prevention
RCN General Secretary & CEO Nicola Ranger described the rise in racist incidents as “absolutely disgusting” and a “mark of shame” for health and care services. She emphasised that “every single ethnic minority nursing professional deserves to go to work without fear of being abused, and employers have a legal duty to ensure workplaces are safe.” The union is also calling on the government and political parties to cease anti-migrant rhetoric — warning that such language “risks emboldening racist behaviour”.
Employer- and sector-wide implications for workforce stability
The RCN warns that if employers fail to deliver a genuinely safe and inclusive workplace, the consequence will be higher departure rates among staff from ethnically diverse backgrounds — worsening staffing pressures and undermining patient safety.
Context: broader backdrop of discrimination in UK health services
This surge in reports of racist incidents among nurses comes against a backdrop of entrenched inequalities and previous findings of discrimination within the health-care and regulatory sectors. A 2023 study found institutional racism persists in UK nurse and midwifery education. Earlier in 2025 the RCN also highlighted delays in investigating mistreatment of migrant care workers in the social-care sector.
What happens next: key questions and pressure on policy makers
The RCN is urging all health-care employers to collaborate with unions to strengthen mechanisms that protect staff from racial abuse. The government says it is reviewing all forms of racism in the NHS and affirms that “racism and discrimination are unacceptable and will not be tolerated”. But union leaders argue that unless political rhetoric changes and actionable steps are taken to root out workplace racism, the trend may worsen.
