The NHS has been urged to tackle "systemic racism" as figures suggested ethnic minority staff in England are increasingly suffering workplace discrimination.

Some 15% of black or minority ethnic (BME) staff complained of discrimination in 2017, according to NHS data released on Wednesday.

Reports of the treatment increased over the previous two years from 13.6% in 2015, while an average of 6% of their white colleagues flagged discrimination in the surveys.

BME staff, who make up nearly a fifth of the NHS workforce in England, were also more likely to experience harassment, bullying or abuse, according to the report.

Professor Dame Donna Kinnair, acting chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said the "truly appalling" numbers "shows just how far we have yet to go".

"It is a disgrace that black and minority ethnic staff experience racism, lower pay, harassment and limited career progression within our health service," she added.

"NHS Trusts need to engage their staff and bring them into the process of resolving issues of discrimination and systemic racism in their workplaces."

NHS England said it had pledged £1 million of funding every year until at least 2025 as part of a raft of measures to improve race equality.

The report, by the health service's workforce race equality standard (WRES) team, did find an improvement of numbers of BME staff in very senior manager positions, with an increase from 5.7% in 2017 to 6.9% in 2018.

But this falls short of the service's make-up, which has increased to 19.1% of those working in trusts in England.

And across England's 231 trusts, the report found just eight had BME executive directors of nursing.

Yvonne Coghill, the director of WRES implementation, said: "Improving the experience of staff is good for them and leads to better outcomes for our patients.

"As well as making the health service fit for the future of patient care, the NHS long term plan commits to doing more for our staff by shining a light on areas where they aren't always treated fairly."

By Sam Blewett