Jewish boy ‘mistreated by pro-Palestine nurses’ on NHS hospital ward

Staff ‘wearing campaigning badges made nine-year-old sit on the floor’

A JEWISH boy was mistreated at an NHS hospital by nurses wearing pro-Palestine badges and ordered to get off a bed and sit on the floor, furious relatives claimed yesterday.

According to his family, the nine-year- old – wearing his kippah skullcap – was ‘kicked out of his bay’ at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH).

Yet when his parents took him back without wearing anything to indicate that he is Jewish, he received ‘quick care’, the family allege. In an anguished social media post the boy’s uncle asks: ‘Is it 1940 again?’

Following a complaint from the family, trust chiefs said they were

‘Is this the world we live in now?’

‘rapidly investigating’ the facts.

The allegation comes amid a record 4,103 reports of antiSemitic incidents in the UK last year, two-thirds of them since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. Israeli forces have faced fierce criticism for repeated raids on hospitals in Gaza which they maintain are ‘precision’ operations targeting terrorists using medical buildings as cover.

Sharing pictures of his nephew on a hospital bed and then on the floor, the uncle – originally from Britain but now living in Israel – said it had ‘made my blood boil’.

He said his nephew normally wears his kippah and traditional tassels (tzitzit) ‘proudly’, but not while at the hospital. ‘The nurses (NHS employees) are all walking around wearing “Free Palestine” pins and he was scared,’ he wrote. ‘Beyond that, the last few times he went in he was denied correct medical care by the same couple of nurses every time.’

The uncle – who we are not naming to protect the boy’s identity – wrote that on his last visit his nephew was ‘kicked out of his bay, by one of the nurses who was covered in pro-Palestine badges and stickers, and due to that, had to lie on the floor with a cannula in. Coincidentally, today when not visibly Jewish, he received quick care. Is this the world we will live in? Is it 1940 again?’

The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region want the allegation to be investigated with ‘extreme urgency’. ‘We are sure you will agree that it is imperative all patients are treated the same irrespective of their race or religion,’ chief executive Marc Levy wrote to hospital bosses. ‘This could have catastrophic repercussions for the Jewish community if they were to feel that they are not safe attending your hospital.’

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: ‘No one should feel treated differently in our hospitals because of their race or religion.’

In a statement, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust said it was aware of the ‘very serious claims’ and was ‘committed to providing high-quality care to all patients. We are rapidly investigating these to establish the situation and are discussing them with the family involved’.