Wes Streeting warns of NHS staff facing a rising tide of ‘1970s-style racism’

NHS staff are bearing the brunt of “1970s, 1980s-style” racist abuse, the Health Secretary has said.

Wes Streeting was warning of the need for the public to brace themselves for the NHS getting overwhelmed by the triple threat of Covid, flu and doctors’ strikes this winter, as he made the claim.

In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Streeting urged patients not to take out their frustration on staff amid the challenges facing the NHS this winter.

“Even if you’ve got a long wait, which I know is frustrating, or you feel like you’ve been sent from pillar to post, which sadly does happen, there’s no excuse for taking that out on staff,” he told the newspaper.

Mr Streeting then added: “But the thing that has shocked me most of all is that the rising tide of racism and the way in which kind of 1970s, 1980s-style racism has apparently become permissible again in this country.

“I’m really shocked at the way this is now impacting on NHS staff.”

The senior minister also criticised politicians who have condoned racism, but did not name anyone in particular.

He said: “I’m disgusted that a level of racism last seen when Britain was a very different country, 50 years ago, has made an ugly comeback and I’m frankly shocked by those in Parliament who’ve leaned into it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the Health Secretary claimed he had spoken to a Labour MP whose daughter works in the NHS as a resident doctor and had suffered racist abuse.

A patient in the hospital “said he only wanted to be treated by white staff”, according to Mr Streeting.

The Health Secretary added: “Although she was Asian, she had slightly fairer skin. And a colleague said ‘will you go and see if maybe he’ll accept you?’.

“And rightly she turned around and said ‘no, I won’t, actually. Go and tell him that he either wants our care or he doesn’t, but he doesn’t get to racially discriminate’. She made the right call.”

Professor Nicola Ranger, the general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said rising levels of racist abuse faced by NHS staff was “a stain on society and a stain on our NHS”.

She added: “No member of nursing staff should face this kind of abuse, particularly when they are caring for patients.

“Racism is an issue across society and is particularly pertinent in health and care services, with such a diverse workforce. We have to recognise that the increasing use of anti-migrant rhetoric in politics is emboldening racist behaviour.

“This must be called out every single time it happens. It is not acceptable, and those responsible must be held to account. We need our leaders across the spectrum to show the way and start recognising the incredible contribution our colleagues make to our health and care system every day. It simply would cease to function without them.”