Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 15 June 2016.
But there are innovative steps that could be taken. Last week, Cancer Research published a report on the next steps that they would want to see taken for a cancer strategy for Wales. They are asking for the introduction of a specific target of 28 days so that we can improve survival rates and, through that, they are adding to the chorus of authoritative voices supporting our policy, as Plaid Cymru, for the introduction of a 28-day diagnosis target.
Before the election, your Government rejected that target, although all the main oncologists in Britain, more or less, are calling for it. In order to achieve such a target, we would need improved waiting times for a number of tests, including better direct access to GP services, to the testing system and to expertise in testing. Will you, therefore, look again at Plaid Cymru’s policy of establishing three multidisciplinary diagnostic centres of the kind that have been very successful in other nations, including Denmark, as part of a strategy to reduce waiting times for these vital diagnostic tests?