The NHS is taking action to tackle antisemitism after a government-commissioned report found that Jewish patients and staff face “routine ostracism” within the service.
Anti-Jewish hatred in the NHS means some patients hide their identity and some staff “suffer in silence”, according to a review by Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism.
Measures to address the issue will include restricting NHS staff freedom to display political symbols on their uniforms, as well as providing antisemitism training for the leaders of the service’s 205 health trusts in England.
Antisemitism is so widespread in parts of the NHS that it threatens its foundation as a universal service, with Jewish patients reportedly lacking confidence that they will receive appropriate care. Mann will set out in his 60-page report, due to be published on Thursday, that some Jewish patients have avoided seeking treatment or delayed essential care as a result, and will highlight “shocking examples of intimidation and abuse within the health service”.
Wes Streeting commissioned Mann last year when he was health secretary to investigate antisemitism in the NHS, following reports that several doctors had made comments expressing hostility towards Jews.
Two doctors, Manoj Sen and Mohammed Asif Munaf, have recently been struck off the medical register and banned from practising medicine in the UK due to antisemitic conduct.
Another doctor, Rahmeh Aladwan, is due to stand trial at Bristol Crown Court next year on charges of inviting support for Hamas, a proscribed organisation, stirring up racial hatred, and using threatening and insulting words at a protest. She is alleged to have posted “free the world from Jewish supremacy” on social media and to have said she did not condemn Hamas or its 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, but did “condemn the existence of Israel”.
Mann’s report sets out reforms the NHS will now pursue as an urgent priority to become a “responsible and inclusive employer”.
The measures will address all forms of racism and discrimination within the NHS, including racism against Black and ethnic minority staff and Islamophobia, as well as antisemitism.
Jewish staff are the only religious group in the NHS workforce who report experiencing increasing discrimination from colleagues, according to the latest staff survey. Some have been so distressed by their experiences that they are considering leaving the service.
“Jewish people have to be confident they will receive the same treatment as everyone else, at all times and in all situations. If people feel, as they do, that some have to hide their identity as patients or suffer in silence as staff, then the universality of the NHS is fundamentally breached,” Mann said.
NHS providers such as hospitals will become “the first line of defence against racism and discrimination for patients and staff”. The chairs and chief executives of all trusts will undergo new mandatory anti-racism training, including antisemitism awareness, within the next six months.
“Since Lord Mann was commissioned to undertake this review, the experience of the Jewish community in this country has only worsened. The arson attack on a Hatzola ambulance station in Golders Green in April was the clearest sign yet of how rising antisemitism in our society has reached our health services,” said Rebecca Gray, a director at the NHS Alliance.
“It is vital that Jewish staff and patients feel safe at work, are able to practise and seek treatment without fear of prejudice or abuse, and are provided with the respect and dignity we all deserve.”
Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “It is absolutely essential that staff are safe at work, but the reality is that racism in the NHS is on the rise, as is violence, aggression and sexual harassment. The fact that these behaviours have become so normalised is alarming.”
The General Medical Council, which regulates doctors in the UK, received 779 complaints of alleged antisemitism by doctors between October 2023 and December 2025, often relating to social media posts. Many complaints concerned the same individuals. It investigated 86 cases.
Alongside striking off Sen and Munaf, it also advised four other doctors on their conduct, issued warnings to three others, and sought “undertakings” from another. It is still examining 31 other cases.
Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, welcomed the measures aimed at tackling the “poison” of all forms of racism in the NHS.
