People of colour feel more 'forced into' working in 'dangerous' hospital wards

ITV Wales
Amelia Womack MP and Cindy Ikie from Black Lives Matter share their views with Adrian Masters on The New Normal podcast Credit: ITV Wales

The deputy leader of the Green Party, Amelia Womack, said of the doctors she has worked with, people of colour feel "far more forced into dangerous wards" compared to their white colleagues. She said these wards are where they are at high risk of contracting coronavirus.

Ms Womack, who has been living in Newport during the pandemic, said it is important to "expose what these real live experiences are on the front line".

Speaking to ITV Wales' Political Editor Adrian Masters on The New Normal podcast, Amelia Womack said: "There's so much we need to be doing to address this system, that doesn't always need to be about explicit racism but about a bias that has happened that lots of people aren't aware of."



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Bioscience research scholar Cindy Ikie is also a guest on the podcast. Cindy is a Black Lives Matter advocate and was recently the group's national campaigns manager for Wales.

She said the pandemic has been a difficult time for her.

"The murder of George Floyd took a real toll on me personally, being a black woman. Having to watch that on TV, it was flabbergasting and very ghastly and emotive...

"I've always been someone who stands up for my own rights and I've also been a person who has stood up as a representative for others. So when the voluntary role for the Black Lives Matter Wales national campaigns manager came to my attention I was very fast to say I want to take this on."


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