A nurse is set to be struck off after a tribunal found she made “very serious” antisemitic remarks about Jewish patients being “tight with money”.
Background of the case
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) tribunal ruled that Helen Oluyemisi Balogun showed a “consistent theme and pattern” of trying to “minimise” her “antisemitic comments”. Ms Balogun, who is from Nigeria, became a nurse in April 2009 and was employed by the Priory Group from November of that year.
The tribunal in London heard from three colleagues regarding an alleged remark made by Ms Balogun in 2023. The panel found that she referred to a Jewish patient as being “tight with money” and that this “correlated with him being Jewish”.
Further incidents
She allegedly made a similar remark about another Jewish patient on a second occasion. Ms Balogun accepted during her oral evidence that she had said “don’t like to spend money… Jew”. The panel stated that the two comments “can only reasonably be interpreted as demonstrating a discriminatory attitude towards patients based on the grounds of race and/or religion.”
The panel added that her conduct “was very serious, deeply unpleasant and went far beyond what the public would expect from a registered nurse”.
Ms Balogun was also found to have told a Jewish colleague words to the effect of “Jews don’t believe in Jesus” or “Jews not accepting Jesus”, despite claiming she had not. The colleague said in her witness statement: “Helen had made some similar comments in the past, including some half-joking comments about Jews not accepting Jesus. I think she was half-joking but her comments did hit home for me. I do not think that a belief system is something people should joke about.”
Hostile environment
Ms Balogun was also found to have sung Christian hymns while close to the same colleague, which the panel found “had the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile and offensive environment” for her and amounted to “harassment”. On another occasion, she referred to a patient’s partner as being “half-caste”, which the tribunal found was “offensively discriminating”.
The panel wrote: “There appears to be a consistent theme and pattern of behaviour regarding your behaviour towards your antisemitic comments which you try to minimise, where you believe that you are not doing anything wrong.”
Defence and outcome
Alice Byron, representing Ms Balogun, said that she has “outlined sincere remorse” and demonstrated “introspective thinking” and “insight into perspectives” beyond her own. Ms Balogun was handed an interim suspension order and will be permanently struck off from the nursing register unless she successfully appeals the decision.
