‘Institutional crisis’: New investigation reveals antisemitism rampant across UK healthcare system

Between October 2023 and July 2025, the Antisemitism Policy Trust, a UK organization that monitors antisemitism, recorded 99 antisemitic incidents across the country’s healthcare sector.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

For British Jews seeking medical care or working to provide it, a place meant to offer safety and compassion is increasingly becoming a source of fear, as a new investigation exposes a troubling pattern of antisemitism, harassment, threats, and violence across the country’s healthcare system.

In a months-long project, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a British charity, has exposed the scale of antisemitism confronting Jews in the UK’s public healthcare system, releasing a documentary and new polling showing how harassment, discrimination, and hostility are fueling fear among both patients and staff.

CAA’s new report found that most British Jews fear their Jewish identity could affect their access to equal treatment within the country’s National Health Service (NHS).

The report’s findings also show that one in three British Jews who accessed NHS services since October 2023 felt uncomfortable because of their Jewish identity or ethnicity.

More than 40 percent of Jewish patients reported concealing their identity when receiving NHS care, fearing that being openly Jewish could expose them to discrimination or affect the standard of treatment they received.

Between October 2023 and July 2025, the Antisemitism Policy Trust, a UK organization that monitors antisemitism, recorded 99 antisemitic incidents across the country’s healthcare sector, highlighting the scale of concerns facing Jewish patients and medical workers.

Stephen Silverman, CAA’s director of investigations and enforcement, warned that the documentary lays bare what he described as “antisemitic rot” embedded within the NHS, pointing to a crisis that extends far beyond isolated incidents.

“The anecdotal evidence presented in our film, together with the empirical data provided by our polling, demonstrate the magnitude and severity of this institutional crisis,” Silverman said in a statement.

The 20-minute documentary exposes a disturbing series of antisemitic incidents within the country’s medical institutions, including the case of a Jewish nurse who was subjected to a Nazi salute by a colleague who kept his position even after admitting to making the gesture.

In another incident, a senior professor was directly threatened with harm to his property and personal safety, while a Jewish emergency services worker was physically attacked by a colleague.

One of the most serious testimonies came from Jewish patient Saul Freeman, who said a surgeon subjected him to antisemitic verbal abuse during surgery, discussing the war in Gaza as the senior doctor made incisions in Freeman’s forehead with a scalpel.

“The war in Gaza is still ongoing. They are still killing children there. You’d think they would have learned lessons after what happened to them in Europe,” the surgeon reportedly told Freeman.

Hospitals are meant to be places of care and protection, but Freeman said they can also leave patients in one of their “most vulnerable situations,” when they must place their health and safety entirely in the hands of those treating them.

“I was hit with real panic, because I didn’t know whether he might intentionally hurt me,” he said.

Earlier this year, the British government implemented new measures to confront antisemitism in the NHS following an independent review that called for stronger action by health authorities to address anti-Jewish bigotry and proposed national guidance on NHS uniforms and equipment amid rising antisemitic incidents in healthcare settings.

Among the review’s recommendations was a requirement that leaders of all NHS provider trusts complete anti-racism training, including specific education on antisemitism, within six months.

However, there was mounting opposition from some medical organizations, with the British Islamic Medical Association and the Muslim Doctors Association arguing that the review’s focus on antisemitism was too “narrow.”

Adding to growing tensions over antisemitism within the healthcare system, the British Medical Association (BMA)—which represents more than 200,000 doctors and medical students across the UK—voted in June in favor of scrapping the world’s most widely recognized definition of antisemitism across the NHS.

Healthcare professionals voted to remove the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism from the NHS, arguing that its application could limit healthcare workers’ ability to express political views and ethical concerns.

The NHS adopted IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism last year after Health Secretary Wes Streeting required its use across all Department of Health and Social Care arm’s-length bodies in response to rising concerns over anti-Jewish discrimination.

The NHS has been under scrutiny following several high-profile cases in the UK involving medical practitioners promoting antisemitic beliefs online and even threatening or boasting about their hate for Jewish people as well as Israelis.

The case of Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan, a trainee trauma and orthopedic surgeon, particularly drew public attention. In November, Aladwan was suspended from practicing medicine in the UK for 15 months over social media posts denigrating Jews and celebrating terrorism.

British law enforcement had arrested Aladwan in October, and in March she pleaded not guilty to inciting support for Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group, and publishing material intending to stir up racial hatred.

Her suspension last year came about two weeks after Streeting called it “chilling” that some members of the Jewish community fear discrimination within the NHS.

Other incidents in the UK included a Jewish family fearing their London doctor’s antisemitism influenced their disabled son’s treatment.

The North London hospital suspended the physician who was under investigation for publicly claiming that all Jews have “feelings of supremacy” and downplaying antisemitism.