St George’s flags create ‘no-go zones’ for NHS staff, health leaders warn

St George’s flags are creating “no-go zones” for NHS staff, with some facing frequent abuse, health leaders have warned.

Staff feel intimidated by the presence of the flags across the country, including when they are visiting people in their own homes to give them treatment, according to several NHS trust chief executives and leaders.

It comes as a poll of senior managers found 45% were extremely concerned about discrimination towards NHS staff from patients and the public, while a further 33% were moderately concerned.

One trust leader, speaking to journalists anonymously, said there were issues around “how we work into the community” and that nurses often enter people’s homes alone.

“You are a nurse going in to a home,” he said. “You’re going in on your own, you’re locking the door behind you.

“I have been into homes with people who have been convicted of sex offences, and we go in and provide care to them.

“It can be a really precarious situation, and they (the nurses) handle that absolutely brilliantly.

“The autonomy and the clinical decisions that they make within that, I think, is fantastic.

“We saw during the time when the flags went up – our staff, who are a large minority of black and Asian staff, feeling deliberately intimidated.

“It felt like the flags were up creating no-go zones. That’s what it felt like to them.

“You add that on top of real autonomous working, that real bravery of working in people’s homes, with an environment … (where) it feels like it’s an area that’s designed to exclude them.

“Our staff continue to work in that environment, and I think they deserve our real praise and thanks as a nation, frankly, for doing that within those really difficult circumstances.”

He said staff can feel intimidated “and in, if I’m honest, in many cases, I think that’s what it was designed to feel like.”

He added that his trust had seen “individual instances of aggression towards staff”.

Another NHS trust leader said one member of their staff, who is white and has mixed race children, had asked some people putting up flags to move so she could park her car.

“The individuals filmed what was happening, and then followed her, and she continued to receive abuse over a series of several days, not because she objected to the flags, but because she disturbed them,” they said.

“There are lots of stories like that. There are lots of stories where people have tried to take flags down outside of their own homes and have been abused and threatened as a consequence of that.”

The leader said the “springing up of flags everywhere has created another form of intimidation and concern for many, many of our staff.”

Daniel Elkes, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said: “The NHS has relied on overseas recruitment for a long time to ensure we have the right workforce.

“We have a really diverse workforce and without that you can’t deliver the NHS.

“We are trying to recruit from the very places where we provide healthcare so the intake into the NHS is representative of British people from more diverse backgrounds.”

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said: “Nursing staff dedicate their lives to caring for others, and too often they are faced with the most appalling hatred and intimidation.

A sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is fuelling a growing cesspool of racism, including against international and ethnic minority nursing staff, without whom our health and care system would simply cease to function.

“Those working in the community feel especially vulnerable and employers have a duty to ensure they are protected.

“Following a summer of further racist disorder, it is little wonder a growing number of nursing staff report feeling unsafe, particularly when having to work on their own and often at night.

“The Government and all politicians have to stop pandering to dangerous anti-migrant sentiments and employers must prioritise tackling racism and work with trade unions to develop stronger mechanisms to protect staff.”

It comes as NHS Providers said the resident doctor strike, scheduled to start on Friday for five days, could wipe out a “once-in-a-generation” chance to fix the NHS.

Industrial action could badly affect NHS recovery, it said.

The NHS Providers’ annual survey of health leaders and managers found that while a growing proportion report high or very high quality care for patients, concerns remain over industrial action, finances and winter pressures.

Regarding strikes, one NHS leader said: “When people take industrial action, you have to then spend a huge amount of time covering their shifts, which means that you don’t have the staffing that you would have had had they not been on industrial action – and your focus is all about how to keep the most people safe.

“You’re not as focused on treating everybody as well as you could… There is a risk that people will die who wouldn’t otherwise have come to harm.”

Mr Elkes said the NHS was making progress, including on productivity through AI and digital transformation, and bearing down on agency costs.

“More strikes now could crush this fragile, hard-won progress, wiping out a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix the health service,” he said.

“And just ahead of the Budget, let’s remember strikes come at a financial cost. That’s money the NHS does not have.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “There is no place for intimidation, racism or abuse in our country or our NHS. Instances of threats and aggression towards staff or their families should be reported to the police.

“We value the diversity of our NHS, which relies on the skill and dedication of hardworking staff from all backgrounds. They must be treated with dignity and respect.

“Our flags represent our history, our heritage, and our values. They are a symbol of our nation and belong to all of us – not just some of us.”