Staff at some of London’s biggest NHS hospitals have been banned from wearing pro-Palestine symbols after complaints they were “upsetting and intimidating” vulnerable patients.

Barts Health NHS Trust confirmed the decision after a lawyers’ group said growing numbers of Jewish patients were reporting their distress at seeing clinical and medical staff wearing provocative slogans and badges in Palestinian colours.

The trust’s ban will apply to its five hospitals: St Bart’s, Mile End, Newham, Royal London and Whipps Cross.

The move came after UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) raised the case of a young Jewish woman who attended Whipps Cross for a caesarean and encountered three members of staff wearing pro-Palestine badges in a 24-hour period.

Two wore “Free Palestine” badges on their lanyards and one had a watermelon symbol, a reference to the Palestinian colours, pinned to their uniform.

The woman, who attended Whipps Cross in January, said: “The display of these symbols made me feel extremely vulnerable, particularly given the level of anti-Semitic activity we’re all witnessing via the extreme elements of online activity and at the UK-wide marches.