NHS workers should be banned from wearing pro-Palestinian badges, an independent review into antisemitism in the health service has recommended, after finding Jewish patients and staff are concealing their faith for fear of harassment.
The measure is one of a series of sweeping recommendations made by Lord John Mann, the Government’s independent advisor on antisemitism, after his review found Jewish NHS employees face ‘routine ostracism’ – with some so distressed they have considered quitting the health service altogether.
The suggestions, which came after Lord Mann was tasked to look into the issue last year, called on the NHS to be ‘a responsible and inclusive employer’ as part of the measures set to be laid out before Parliament on Thursday.
These also include stronger accountability for NHS managers, improved recording and monitoring of racist incidents, facilitating more patients to record their ethnicity and banning the wearing of scrubs or uniform at political protests.
Under the guidance, NHS employees should also be forbidden from wearing of political insignia while at work, with Jewish patients revealing they are experiencing discrimination to the point of not seeking, or putting off crucial, NHS medical care.
The Government has pledged it will move ‘swiftly’ to implement the findings.
This comes after former health secretary Wes Streeting agreed in March to give regulators the power to ensure practitioners who use ‘intolerably racist and anti-Semitic language’ are struck off from the medical register.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said there have been ‘too many’ recent examples of doctors expressing anti-Jewish sentiment on social media without swift action being taken.
NHS workers should be banned from wearing pro-Palestinian badges and wearing scrubs to political protests, an independent review into antisemitism in the health service has recommended Pictured: Dr Rahmeh Aladwan pictured at a protest
Dr Aladwan (pictured), who wore a ‘celebratory’ number 7 necklace, which is a reference to the October 7 attacks, was allowed to keep working for the NHS despite making a ‘slit your throat’ gesture at Jewish protesters and posting anti-Semitic tirades online
This included Dr Rahmeh Aladwan who was allowed to keep working for the NHS despite making a ‘slit your throat’ gesture at Jewish protesters and posting anti-Semitic tirades online.
The trauma and orthopaedic surgeon was investigated but escaped suspension at tribunal because of her ‘right to freedom of speech’.
Dr Aladwan was subsequently barred from practising for 15 months at a second hearing in November but denied making racist or hateful comments.
The row led to Mr Streeting asking regulators to explain ‘why they are failing so publicly and abysmally in their responsibility to protect Jewish staff and Jewish patients’.
The NHS doctor, who wore a ‘celebratory’ number 7 necklace in court last month, is also charged with four counts of inviting support for the proscribed group by posting comments online between July 23 and December 31 last year.
The 31-year-old British Palestinian is also accused of using threatening or abusive insulting words at a protest on July 21 in Westminster, and stirring up racial hatred in written material on November 19. She faces trial next year.
Lord Mann was tasked last year by the Government to look into ways patients could be protected from racism after a rise in reports of antisemitism by NHS doctors.
Doctor Richard Caplan described antisemitism as being ‘quite freely expressed’ among colleagues, adding he has ‘never experienced views like this’ and crediting October 7, 2023 attacks as the ‘turning point’.
He told the BBC: ‘The informal political discussions about recent events have quickly turned from being quite a measured discussion between colleagues into quite literally pointing out the irony of what’s going on in Gaza and comparing it to the Holocaust.
‘This has become a widely accepted fact and perfectly acceptable thing to say.’
The report joined several other independent reviews of antisemitism across varying sectors, which were commissioned in the wake of the October 2025 deadly terror attack on Heaton Park Synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester.
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During which Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said there was a need for a wider review into the NHS despite management training already being put in place, ‘because in some cases, clear cases are simply not being dealt with’.
The Government said intended reforms in response to the review’s findings will ‘benefit everyone who experiences hatred or abuse in the health service’, not just victims of antisemitism.
This pledge comes as Rabbi Charley Baginsky, co-lead of movement for progressive Judaism, said the consequences of global warfare, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is ‘making its way into hospital beds’.
She told ITV this increases the ‘vulnerability’ of Jewish citizens, stemming from a situation by the Israeli government which is ‘way beyond their control’.
DHSC said a new staff standard will be introduced setting minimum expectations for how organisations must prevent, respond to and learn from incidents of racism, while mandatory anti-racism training, specifically including antisemitism, will be put in place for NHS trust chairs and chief executives within six months.
Mandatory training on equality, diversity and human rights, which is already in place for 1.5 million staff, will be updated to include ‘quality-assured content’ on antisemitism and anti-Muslim hostility, the department added.
Lord Mann described Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training as the ‘only way’ of tackling antisemitism in the medical workplace, adding the need for more ‘basic training’.
He told the BBC: ‘If you don’t understand that a Jewish person going into hospital would not be comfortable eating a ham sandwich, then you are not doing your job properly.’
Lord John Mann (pictured) was tasked last year by the Government to look into ways patients could be protected from racism after a rise in reporting’s of antisemitism by NHS doctors
The Government has also committed to setting out a single set of national guidance for employers which lay out their responsibilities in tackling discrimination and give guidance and examples of what kinds of incidents might need to be referred to the regulator.
Lord Mann said: ‘Jewish people have to be confident that they will receive the same treatment as everyone else, at all times 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.
‘The solutions are simple but require a consistency of approach across the whole of the NHS and clear leadership at the top and across all NHS trusts.
‘The NHS as an employer must act as a responsible and inclusive employer and take the responsibility of making its employment and service to patients one that the entirety of the country, including our Jewish community, can feel and see is one that is for them as well as everybody else.’
Health Secretary James Murray said racism and discrimination ‘betray everything the NHS stands for and its ability to provide safe, world-class care’.
He added: ‘Lord John Mann has made a series of robust and practical recommendations which we are accepting.
‘I know that Jewish people – and everyone experiencing discrimination – need action, not words.
‘Together with NHS England, we will waste no time in setting these recommendations in motion to build a health service that lives up to its values.’
The NHS Alliance, which represents NHS trusts, said it would work with members ‘to support them to implement (the recommendations) in their organisations’.
Director Rebecca Gray said: ‘Everyone deserves to feel that they belong in our society and we must work towards taking a zero-tolerance approach to prejudice in all its forms.’
Dean Royles, interim chief executive of NHS Employers, said the review ‘reveals beyond any doubt that antisemitism and others forms of racism in the NHS are rising, as they are within our wider society, and must be tackled with urgency by all of us’.
He added: ‘Employers and NHS leaders know that good employment practices and expectations around behaviour are paramount and will take on the recommendations and feedback from the review.’
