Wes Streeting has vowed to tackle antisemitism in the NHS, telling guests at a Holocaust Memorial Day event, apologising for medics found to have used “the most grotesque language”.
Speaking to survivors, their children and Holocaust educators in Parliament, the Health Secretary said that current levels of antisemitic incidents recorded in the UK suggested that the phrase “never again”, associated with the Shoah, “rings hollow".
"Even in an institution like the NHS which prides itself on its values, [and is supposed to be] here for all of us when we need it... I'm ashamed to say I have had to deal with medics who are using just the most grotesque language – explicitly racist language – and when not explicitly racist, demonstrating a level of conduct which shows they have clearly lost sight of their first duty, their patients.”
It is their duty, he continued, to ensure “people who come through their doors in a vulnerable way feel completely safe and don't have a shred of doubt that the people treating them will treat them in the right way."
Reflecting on antisemitism in wider society, Streeting said: "It is very much alive and claiming lives and changing lives for those still with us.”
He added that those responsible are “seeking to make Jewish life in this country smaller and less safe.”
Acknowledging the “pain and fear” this has caused, he said: "It is something that actually should shame the rest of us because all of us have a responsibility to tackle [it]."
Streeting said that when it comes to the atrocities of 1930s and 1940s, it isn't the "Nazis in uniforms" that disturbed him the most, but how the people lived close to the death camps where Jews were exterminated, "saw it, heard it, smelt it and chose to look the other way."
The Health Secretary continued: "Those who perpetrate are always in the minority, but they are able to change a place, a space, even a society, even a country, because of the cowardice of bystanders.
"That is the lesson, especially for those of us who are not Jewish, at a moment when antisemitism in this country and around the world is alive and kicking and those who would happily kill Jews are on the rise.
"I promise to do everything in my power and my responsibility to tackle antisemitism in the NHS.
"I give you my word I will tackle antisemitism where it manifests."
Streeting’s address echoed comments he made earlier this month to congregants at a question and answer session at Cranbrook Synagogue, in his constituency of Ilford North.
At the shul he heard from members of the community of the fears they have about the way they will be treated by NHS staff. Some attendees told the Health Secretary that they remove their Star of David necklaces before entering hospitals, while one disclosed that she had requested that the word "Jewish" be taken off her medical records.
The government’s adviser on antisemitism, Lord Mann, previously told the JC that some medics within the NHS wear Palestinian badges "without thinking through the implications".
He called for mandatory antisemitism training in the health service, adding: “We can’t expect people to be able to challenge antisemitism if they don’t know what it is, and we can’t presume they know what it is."
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