The NHS could ban workers from wearing pro-Palestine badges while permitting crosses and Star of David religious symbols.
New guidelines on NHS uniforms will be issued as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a review of antisemitism within the health service.
There would potentially be a crackdown on dress code breaches, with scarves, shirts and badges promoting political causes barred.
But religious symbols such as a cross or Star of David are expected to remain admissible, it has been reported by the Telegraph.
Sir Keir yesterday launched a review of antisemitism in the NHS, saying there were too many cases ‘simply not being dealt with’.
There have been complaints made about some health service employees including junior medic Dr Rahmeh Aladwan making allegedly antisemitic statements.
An announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘NHS England is reviewing the uniform and workwear guidance last updated in 2020, in light of recent successful approaches rolled out at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
‘NHS England will engage stakeholders on its proposals and issue new guidance shortly.
‘The guidance will protect freedom of religious expression while ensuring patients feel respected at all times.
‘The guidance will not impact staff’s freedom to protest and speak out on political issues, but it will ensure that the political views of staff do not impact on patient care.’
Sir Keir yesterday ordered a review of antisemitism in the NHS, saying there were too many cases ‘simply not being dealt with’.
He said Lord John Mann, the Government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, would lead the review as part of a wider clampdown on antisemitism in the UK.
During a visit to the Community Security Trust. which provides protection for Jewish communities in the UK, Sir Keir also announced a £10million boost for security at sites including synagogues and Jewish schools.
He told the CST: ‘We have heard loud and clear in the last few days and weeks that words are not enough, action is what matters.’
Announcing Lord Mann’s review, he said: ‘We’ve already put in place management training in relation to the NHS, but I think we need a wider review.
‘Because in some cases, clear cases are simply not being dealt with.’
In a separate review published in July, Lord Mann and former Conservative minister Dame Penny Mordaunt warned of rising antisemitism across British society, including a ‘specific unaddressed issue’ within the NHS.
Lord Mann said his review would ‘look at the issues that can undermine the confidence of individuals when seeking or receiving healthcare’.
It is expected to focus on how healthcare regulators tackle antisemitism and other forms of racism, while all 1.5million NHS staff will be required to undergo updated mandatory antisemitism and anti-racism training.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Social Care said NHS England would review guidance on staff uniforms to ‘protect freedom of religious expression while ensuring patients feel respected at all times’.
NHS England and other healthcare bodies will also be asked to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
This states: ‘Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.
‘Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed towards Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, towards Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.’
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told of being ‘appalled by recent incidents of anti-Semitism by NHS doctors’, adding: ‘I will not tolerate it.
‘There can be no place in our NHS for doctors or staff continuing to practise after even persistently using anti-Semitic or hateful language.
Patients put their lives in the hands of healthcare professionals. They treat us at our most vulnerable. They therefore have a special responsibility to provide total comfort and confidence.’
It comes as an NHS doctor facing claims of antisemitism and Holocaust denial openly called for Jihad on the streets of London and described armed Palestinian fighters as ‘heroes’.
Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, a trainee trauma and orthopaedics doctor, has come under investigation over several ‘dangerous’ social media posts littered with praise for terrorist organisation Hamas and previously said she would ‘never condemn’ the October 7 attack.
She also once described a hospital in north London as a ‘Jewish supremacy cesspit’.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service ruled last month that no suspension was necessary because her posts did not amount to ‘bullying or harassment’.
Dr Aladwan’s lawyer told the MPTS she was exercising her freedom of speech to oppose crimes by Israel, including those identified by the United Nations.
He told the regulator she is a Palestinian doctor with an impeccable clinical record and is, herself, a direct victim of genocide and of dispossession.
The tribunal ruled there was not sufficient evidence to show that Dr Aladwan posed a real risk to patients and added that allowing her to remain practicing would not undermine public confidence in the medical profession.
In a speech after she left the tribunal building, Dr Aladwan said she hoped the ruling would encourage other medical professionals to ‘speak up’.
Following criticism over the decision including by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the General Medical Council has referred the case back to the MPTS, with a new hearing set for October 23.
In response to Mr Streeting’s comments, Jahad Rahman – partner at Rahman Lowe Solicitors, – which is representing Dr Aladwan, said: ‘We are concerned by the recent public comments made by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
‘As set out in our recent open letter to Mr Streeting, politicians must refrain from making statements that could be perceived as seeking to influence or direct the outcome of judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings.
‘The independence of the judiciary, including independent tribunals such as the MPTS, is a fundamental principle of our legal system.
‘When senior Government figures make comments on the merits or outcomes of ongoing cases, there is a real risk of undermining public confidence in the impartiality of those proceedings, the administration of justice and the rule of law.
‘We are also deeply concerned by the decision to rehear the case and any external or political pressure on the tribunal would be wholly unreasonable, irrational, and likely to give rise to grounds for an application for judicial review.
‘Dr Aladwan continues to participate fully in the tribunal process and remains confident that the MPTS will assess the evidence fairly and independently, free from any external or political pressure.’
Now footage has emerged of Dr Aladwan openly showing her support for Jihadist fighters, as one peer and former MP told Daily Mail the GMC must ‘get a grip’ and suspend her.
The video was taken at a protest held outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in Whitehall on July 21, to coincide with a reported visit by Major General Tomer Bar, head of the Israeli Air Force.
Speaking to dozens of protesters, who were flanked by Met Police officers, Dr Aladwan spoke about the five ‘Palestinian principles of liberation’.
Andrew Gilbert, vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, has welcomed the latest announcement by Sir Keir of an NHS review – saying Jewish staff and patients had felt ‘let down by the NHS while antisemitism has been allowed to flourish and thrive’.
Sir Keir also criticised universities that had been ‘too slow’ in dealing with cases of antisemitism, singling out the University of Oxford, which is understood to have suspended a student on Wednesday after he was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
The student is alleged to have chanted for Gaza to ‘put the Zios in the ground’ during a protest in London on Saturday.
Sir Keir said: ‘Look at Oxford this week. That was a slow reaction to the clearest of cases.’
His visit comes in the wake of the terrorist attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on October 2 that left two men dead.
And figures released by the Home Office last week suggest antisemitic hate crime remains near record levels.
Sir Keir said: ‘The figures are all going in the wrong direction – and it’s not just the figures, it’s the feeling of insecurity and the fear that it instils in our community.’
Sir Keir also paid tribute to the work of the CST, both in responding to the attack in Manchester and in protecting the Jewish community, saying he felt the benefit of its work when he attended synagogue with his family.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who accompanied the Prime Minister on his visit to the CST on Thursday, said she was reviewing protest legislation and providing additional police protection outside synagogues and other locations.
But she added that the ‘bigger question’ was how to improve community cohesion so that Jewish children could ‘go to school without learning what a lockdown is’.
Mark Gardner, chief executive of CST, said he had had a ‘very straightforward and very productive’ meeting with Sir Keir and Ms Mahmood.
He said: ‘Things that I was told to say, I didn’t really need to say, because both the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary said it in a very straightforward way, what the problem is and what needs done about it.
‘And also that security is a bandage. We don’t want to live behind high walls for the rest of our lives.’
The Government said that it would also look at how best to support Muslim communities, which have experienced an increase in hate crime over the past year.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care today said: ‘The NHS is a universal health service, which means that everyone, regardless of race, religion, or creed, should feel safe seeking its care.
‘NHS England is reviewing its uniform and workwear guidance to protect freedom of religious expression while ensuring patients feel respected at all times.
‘The political views of staff should never impact on patient care.’
