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<\/a><\/p>\nNHS workers from the Medics For Gaza arrive at the pro-Palestine rally at Israeli Embassy, March 22, 2025 in London. (Guy Smallman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The advisor, Lord John Mann, delivered 36 recommendations to tackle antisemitism across the National Health Service in a report that the government formally accepted on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish people and everyone experiencing discrimination need action, not words,\u201d Secretary of State for Health James Murray said in accepting the recommendations for the country\u2019s publicly funded healthcare system.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Keir Starmer charged Mann with tackling antisemitism in the NHS in October, soon after an attack on a Manchester synagogue in which two Jewish men were killed.<\/p>\n
The review followed multiple high-profile incidents of alleged antisemitism within the health care system, including where Jewish patients said they were uncomfortable or unable to receive care from workers whose pro-Palestinian signifiers were at odds with the patients\u2019 support for Israel.<\/p>\n
Mann\u2019s investigation documented \u201croutine ostracism\u201d of Jews within parts of the health service, Jewish doctors who considered leaving their jobs because of antisemitism and Jewish patients who said they were afraid to seek NHS treatment because they feared antisemitism in doing so.<\/p>\n
Calling such a climate \u201cnever acceptable,\u201d Mann said changes are needed, including to the NHS dress code, which has not been updated recently to address political symbols. He said he believed political symbols should be banned inside NHS facilities and NHS workers should be barred from wearing their uniforms to political rallies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe firm position of this review is that political identifiers do not have a place in the NHS,\u201d Mann wrote, adding, \u201cTo be more specific, saying \u2018Free Palestine\u2019 or \u2018I love Israel\u2019 are reasonable beliefs and expressions but the identification of such views or beliefs on public facing NHS owned profiles might, in of themselves, be a barrier to patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also calls for tracking data about Jewish patients to be able to monitor their satisfaction and medical outcomes, training health care workers about antisemitism and improving systems to handle patients\u2019 discrimination complaints.<\/p>\n
No timeline for implementation is laid out, but Murray said changes would be rolled out \u201cwithout delay\u201d and a first progress report would be published by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Unison, a public service employees union that includes NHS workers, said it opposes antisemitism and praised some of Mann\u2019s recommendations but raised questions about the dress code regulations. \u201cThere\u2019s a real risk precious time and resources will be spent trying to define a political badge and what staff can wear in their own time,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
British Jewish groups applauded the report. The Board of Deputies of British Jews\u2019 Vice President Karen Newman thanked Mann and said the Board \u201chas long made the case for many of the measures included in this report.\u201d Among them, she said, were \u201ctraining, staff accountability, uniform guidance, recording of Jewish ethnicity, and empowerment of Jewish staff networks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman also noted that several of the recommendations were included in the board\u2019s July 2025 Commission on Antisemitism report, which Mann jointly chaired.<\/p>\n
The Jewish Medical Association said the reforms would ensure \u201caccountability for protection from discrimination\u201d for both Jewish staff and patients and other minorities, and the Community Security Trust said it welcomed Mann\u2019s recommendations and \u201cthe clear recognition that antisemitism must be addressed urgently across the NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns about whether people perceived to be Jewish or pro-Israel can safely receive medical care from pro-Palestinian workers has ratcheted up anxiety in Jewish communities around the world, fueled by viral incidents such as an Australian nurse who filmed herself threatening Jewish patients last year.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Lord Mann report\u2019s, the British network ITV News aired an interview with an Orthodox Jewish doctor who quit his NHS job and moved to Israel this week with his family, citing rising antisemitism in England.<\/p>\n
Dr. Boruch Michaels lived in the heavily Orthodox Jewish London neighborhood of Golders Green, where a spate of recent attacks on Jewish targets. Among the issues he told ITV that he had seen at work were other doctors refusing to treat Israeli patients and staff refusing to give Jewish patients kosher meals.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cIf they are dying and in A&E [the emergency room] I\u2019ve been told by doctors that if they\u2019re from Israel then they will not treat that person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mann did not comment publicly on the doctor\u2019s account but said in making his recommendations, \u201cJewish people have to be confident that they will receive the same treatment as everyone else, at all times in all situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday night, Mann elaborated on his views about the political signifiers in the workplace. (Neither he nor the report specifically mentioned keffiyehs, signifiers of Palestinian solidarity that some Jews and allies of Israel interpret as support for violence.)<\/p>\n
\u201cAn \u2018I support Palestine\u2019 badge, or anything like that, is a problem for some people, just in the same way as an \u2018I support Israel\u2019 badge is a problem for some people. Don\u2019t wear either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
More broadly, Mann said, workers should not be bringing their views into the NHS. \u201cThe stronger the views the bigger the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n