Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:02 pm on 22 November 2016.
Well, the problem, I believe, with many of the various cancers, is that they just present when one goes to an A&E department because of the fact that the symptoms aren’t serious or don’t become serious until you actually have to go to A&E. Pancreatic cancer is an example of that, where many people only get the diagnosis once they go into A&E, because it’s so difficult to give a diagnosis for that kind of cancer. Others might feel some pain and they do nothing about it—we know that some are like that. Then, of course, they’re in a position where they have to have treatment. We’ve been working with doctors to ensure that GPs can move people through the system so that they can have a cancer diagnosis as soon as is possible, and we see, of course, that the vast majority of people do go through the system and get a diagnosis as soon as possible.