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NHS bosses say a movement to put up flags on houses and in public spaces has created “no go zones” for Black and Asian nurses doing home visits. Ethnic minority NHS carers who went into homes near where St George’s flags and Union Jacks have been put up have faced aggression, the Mirror has been told. Another NHS leader said the movement appeared reminiscent of the skinhead movement in the 70s. The movement, backed by prominent Far Right leaders, has seen flags hung by activists from windows and lamp posts and in town and city centres. A major regional NHS leader said areas with flags up have been linked with “instances of aggression towards staff”, such as district nurses, community matrons, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, specialist palliative care nurses and mental health nurses. The chief executive of a major NHS community trust, speaking to the Mirror on condition of anonymity, said: “We saw during the time when the flags went up that actually our staff, who are a large minority of black and Asian staff, felt deliberately intimidated. It felt like the flags were creating ‘no go’ zones. “That real bravery of working in people's homes with an environment that says if you go into certain areas… it feels like it's an area that's designed to exclude them.” The chief executive added: “It certainly feels like an environment where people felt intimidated and, if I'm honest, I think that's what it was designed to feel like.” The flags movement has proved controversial with public figures such as former England footballer Gary Neville saying it is divisive. Some people putting up flags in streets insist they are simply expressing their patriotic right to fly a national flag. However the initiative has been driven online by Far Right figures such as English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson to express anti-immigrant sentiment and many see it as representing hostility towards non-white people. The Mirror heard how one nurse with mixed race children who was returning home after a shift asked people putting up flags to move them as they were blocking her parking bay. A NHS chief executive, who runs one of England’s largest mental health trusts, told how the nurse was filmed and abused “for days” as a result. Explaining how NHS staff “have been abused during this period with flags”, they said: “People's history of being racially abused or intimidated and discriminated against is palpable. Everyone has a story. “If you're a member of staff who, even if you're relatively young, you may still have parents that have experienced during the 70s the use of flags by the skinhead youth movement, and the level of abuse that people received. “The springing up of flags everywhere has created another form of intimidation and concern for many of our staff.” Another NHS chief executive told the Mirror: “I have a massive amount of respect for nurses who go into the community as sole workers on their own, all of the time. You are a nurse going into a home on your own. You're locking the door behind you. “I have been into homes with people who have been convicted of sex offenses, and we go in and provide care. It really can be a really precarious situation.”
