The documentary, Malignant: Antisemitism in the NHS, features Shelley Lipman, a registered nurse at a Cambridge hospital, who said a colleague performed a Nazi salute at her after discovering she was Jewish.
Lipman said a healthcare assistant had asked about a tattoo in Hebrew on her arm, prompting her to explain that she was Jewish.
When she returned from lunch, she said, a nurse was standing beside a patient’s bed “literally holding a Nazi salute”.
She said she confronted the colleague, telling him: “That is the Nazi salute. That is Hitler.” She said he replied: “Yeah.”
NHS nurse Shelley Lipman appearing in the CAA documentary 'Malignant: Antisemitism in the NHS' (Credit: CAA)[Missing Credit]
According to Lipman, the member of staff remains at the hospital.
Saul Freeman, a patient, said in the documentary he feared for his safety when a consultant plastic surgeon allegedly made antisemitic remarks while removing a cancerous growth from his forehead under local anaesthetic.
Freeman said the surgeon had been discussing the price of petrol and then the war in Gaza, before allegedly saying that Jews “should know better” because of what had happened to them in Europe.
"’Jews do it just for fun…They shoot children in the head or the leg for fun, and they do it differently for their own amusement each day’,” Freeman recounts the surgeon as saying.
Freeman said he then realised his Magen David necklace had come out of his shirt and was visible.
“The guy has a knife. He’s working on me,” Freeman said. “It’s about as vulnerable you could be in terms of a patient and doctor interaction. I was panicking really to be honest, because I didn’t know if he was going to intentionally cause me harm.”
Freeman complained to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust but said he was told the trust could not provide details of any employment investigations, decisions or outcomes concerning individual members of staff.
The CAA-produced documentary also features a Jewish patient who discovered they had been treated by Dr Wahid Asif Shaida, who had been chairman of the British branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, using the name Abdul Wahid.
The Government proscribed Hizb ut-Tahrir in January 2024, describing it as antisemitic and saying it “actively promotes and encourages terrorism”.
Dr Shaida was suspended from NHS practice following the ban, but NHS England lifted the suspension six months later. A panel found insufficient evidence to remove him from the NHS performers list and no evidence that he had been involved with Hizb ut-Tahrir following its proscription. He was allowed to return to practice subject to conditions intended to protect staff and patients.
His lawyers said he had worked in the NHS for 33 years without concerns about his professionalism. He remains on the NHS performers list.
The CAA said its findings were reinforced by polling of 4,490 members of Britain’s Jewish community, conducted between November 3-20, 2025.
The survey found that 65.1 per cent would be concerned about not receiving equal medical or administrative treatment because they were Jewish.
Among those who had received clinical care at an NHS institution since October 7, 2023, 20.6 per cent said they had felt uncomfortable because of their Jewish identity, while 25.5 per cent said they had taken steps to conceal their Jewish identity, such as hiding signs of Jewishness or avoiding mentioning that they were Jewish.
Stephen Silverman, CAA’s director of investigations and enforcement, said the documentary and polling demonstrated the “magnitude and severity” of what he called an “institutional crisis”.
He said Jewish people were having to hide their identity “for fear of unequal treatment or abuse”, adding: “As long as that is the case, the NHS cannot be said to be for everyone.”
The findings come after ministers accepted recommendations from Lord Mann, the Government’s anti-Semitism adviser, in June. The measures included mandatory antisemitism training and restrictions on political symbols that could create a perception of bias among patients.
The British Medical Association voted to oppose the recommendations and seek an “immediate pause”, warning of implications for freedom of expression.
An NHS spokesperson said: “The stories highlighted in this documentary show there is unacceptable antisemitism and racism in the NHS, faced by both our staff and our patients and we must root this out.
“Any form of abuse against NHS staff is totally unacceptable and all local organisations must take a zero-tolerance approach to harassment, discrimination, racism and acts of violence – including police involvement and criminal prosecution where appropriate.
“The NHS is taking targeted action to support our staff, providing protection and comprehensive psychological support for people reporting concerns, and implementing the recommendations from Lord Mann’s review to tackle antisemitism and other forms of racism in the NHS.”
