19 May 2026
Responding to new figures from the Royal College of Nursing showing high levels of racist abuse towards nursing staff, Dr Ian Higginson, RCEM President, said: “These figures reflect what we are hearing, anecdotally, from our own members in Emergency Departments.
“There are also concerns about increasing violence and aggression against staff in Emergency Departments, some of which undoubtedly has a racist element behind it.
“We share those concerns and believe both to be underreported due to a lack of faith in employers or the authorities to act against it, fear of retaliation, or a perception that the culture of both racial abuse and violence and aggression is becoming normalised and that nobody in a position to change things, cares.
“We are concerned that it is almost regarded as part of the job by employers, with any number of reasons given why our patients might be behaving unacceptably, rather than starting with the default that such behaviour is unacceptable, and going from there.
“We hear a lot of words about how this is unacceptable from politicians and NHS leaders, but we don’t see action. And we don’t have faith that meaningful action is coming.
“We raised this issue with the previous Secretary of State and he expressed concern, and promised to bring it to the attention of the Home Secretary.
“Since then we have seen no evidence of movement. These figures reinforce the need to act – and we hope the government acts.”