Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:01 pm on 27 September 2016.
Thank you for those comments. Again, I am pleased that each of the spokespeople have felt able to come into the Chamber and talk about the way in which we’ve approached this issue and welcome the membership of the group. I look forward to them all being equally positive when they provide their recommendations. Although we may have different issues to deal with at times, we actually have to make choices, because this isn’t an easy area. It’s what the previous review group found as well in 2014—a range of their recommendations at the time has been implemented. There has been real progress made, but there are still real challenges, which is why we are now looking at this again, and I’m pleased that we’re doing so.
On your points about wider access to non-medicine technologies, I’m pleased to confirm that there is a new hub that is being developed to be based at Velindre NHS Trust, which will deliver a strategic and national approach to identify, appraise and then adopt new technologies into health and care settings. So, this work is not proceeding on its own. On proton beam therapy, we’re actively looking at what we can do to increase capacity and make it more localised here in Wales, and, in fact, at investment the Welsh Government is making within the private sector to make that happen.