NEARLY one in 10 NHS staff were subject to discrimination from patients and the public in the past year: the highest on record, the latest NHS Staff Survey has revealed.
Physical attacks on NHS workers are at the highest rate in 3 years, with almost one in seven of the 800,000 respondents reporting an assault during the same period.
A record percentage, including almost one in three ambulance staff, have said they were subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour by patients and the public.
Workplace Equality
When asked: “Does your organisation act fairly with regard to career progression/promotion, regardless of e.g. age, disability, ethnic background, gender reassignment, religion, sex, or sexual orientation?”, less than half of all NHS staff who are not White responded positively.
Alternatively, approximately 56% of White NHS staff answered positively.
The same pattern is exhibited across disability equality standards.
When asked the same question, less than half of NHS staff with a long-lasting health condition or illness said yes.
Whereas, more than 50% without a long-lasting health condition reported that their organisation did act fairly.
Physical Attacks on NHS Staff
In response to physical attacks on NHS staff currently standing at a 3-year high, Danny Mortimer, Director General (People) for NHS England, called for the delivery of widespread improvements for the workforce.
Mortimer said: “These figures paint a deeply worrying picture of the abuse our hardworking NHS staff face.
“Staff safety and wellbeing is paramount, and we want everyone experiencing any kind of unwanted incident to feel confident enough to report it.
“But while that behaviour is completely unacceptable, we must look at what more we can do to support the people who keep our services running.
“We know about the everyday pressures staff face – such as not being able to get decent food on a night shift – and we haven’t moved fast enough to fix them.
“Staff have worked so hard to improve NHS performance and deliver care over winter as shown in the latest performance figures.
“These survey results show it is now for the NHS to deliver improvements for staff because there is so much more to do to make the NHS a better place to work.”
The number of staff who would recommend their workplace has dropped below 60% from 2024.
Nonetheless, nearly 90% of NHS staff felt their job made a difference to patients.
Reference
NHS. NHS Staff Survey National Results. 2026. Available at: https://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/results/national-results/. Last accessed: 17 March 2026.
Featured image: Matthew on Adobe Stock
