St George’s flags create ‘no go zones’ for NHS staff, health leaders warn
St George’s flags create “no-go zones” for NHS staff, with some frequently facing harassment, health leaders have warned.
Some NHS trust chief executives and leaders said they were frightened by the presence of the flags across the country, including for staff visiting people in their own homes to treat them.
A survey of senior managers found that 45 per cent of respondents were extremely concerned about discrimination against NHS staff from patients and the public, while 33 per cent were moderately concerned.
A charity leader, speaking anonymously, said there were particular issues with nurses entering people’s homes alone while working in the community. When St George’s flags were raised, staff from ethnic minorities felt they were being “deliberately intimidated”.
“You go in by yourself, you lock the door behind you,” he said. “I have been in the homes of people convicted of sexual crimes and we provide care to them.
“This can be a really risky situation and they (the nurses) handle it absolutely brilliantly,” he added. “At the time the flags were raised, we saw that our staff, a large minority of black and Asian staff, felt deliberately intimidated.
“It felt like the flags had been raised and created no-go zones. That’s what it felt like to them, too.”
The trust leader added that he thought it was designed to feel “intimidating and exclusionary” for staff who had seen “individual examples of aggression”.
Another NHS trust leader said a member of staff who was white and had mixed-race children asked some people to put up flags so he could park his car.
“The individuals filmed what was happening, then followed him and continued to harass him for several days; not because he objected to the flags, but because he was making them uncomfortable,” they said.
They added that this was one of many stories of staff being abused as a result of the flag removal operation.
Daniel Elkes, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents the trusts, said the NHS relied on overseas recruitment and could not deliver without workforce diversity.
“We have a truly diverse workforce and you can’t deliver the NHS without that,” he said. “We look to recruit from places where we provide healthcare, so NHS recruits are more representative of British people from diverse backgrounds.”
Scores of St George’s Flags were raised across the UK over the summer as part of a controversial movement called ‘Operation Raise the Colour’, supported by far-right figures. Amid the movement, a Chinese restaurant in York was covered in racist graffiti and St George crosses.
It comes as NHS Providers say a junior doctors’ strike, scheduled to start next Friday, could destroy a “once in a generation” chance to fix the NHS. It was stated that five days of industrial action could badly affect the recovery of the NHS.
NHS Providers’ annual survey of healthcare leaders and managers found a growing proportion reported high or very high quality care for patients, but concerns remained about industrial action, finances and winter pressures.
Regarding strikes, one NHS leader said: “When people go into industrial action you have to spend a lot of time completing their shifts, which means you don’t have the staff you would have if they weren’t in industrial action – and your focus is on how to keep the most people safe.”
“You don’t focus on treating everyone as well as you can… There’s a risk of people dying who wouldn’t otherwise be harmed.”
