Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. The new treatment fund has brought hope to many cancer sufferers, making drugs such as Kadcyla routinely available to Welsh NHS patients. Of course, it is not just cancer patients who will benefit from the new treatment fund, and it will fund more than drugs.

Cabinet Secretary, while I welcome the introduction of the fund, I do have some questions about the day-to-day operation of the scheme. Clinicians who oversaw the introduction of disease-modifying drugs for MS patients state that it took over two years following the approval of Sativex for patients to receive it, because the infrastructure needed to administer and monitor the drug was not in place. Many of the new types of medication becoming available require close monitoring and have to be administered in a day bed. Cabinet Secretary, will the new treatment fund ensure that it’s not only the cost of the medication that is taken into account but also ensure that the infrastructure is in place to deliver the medication?

Of course, the scheme will only fund the first 12 months of treatment costs, with local health boards having to meet the ongoing cost of treatment. Cabinet Secretary, how are the local health boards being made aware of new treatments in the development pipeline so they can plan for future funding needs? It is proving difficult to get information about what treatments are available under the scheme. Cabinet Secretary, do you have any plans to publish a continuously updated list of available treatments so patients can be clear on what is available and whether their local health board is complying with the fund?

Do you have any plans to regularly publish data on the operation of the scheme, such as the number of patients who benefit, what funding is allocated to each treatment, and the length of time taken from approval of the treatment to when it is received by patients? The fund will provide health boards with £16 million per year. Cabinet Secretary, how do you ensure that the budget is maximised, and what systems do you have in place to ensure that any overspends do not impact on other areas of patient care?

Finally, Cabinet Secretary, England’s chief medical officer has said that cancer patients should be given whole genome screening in order to help select the best treatment for the patient. So, Cabinet Secretary, is this something you will consider and could the new treatment fund be used to fund the initial introduction of this type of screening? Thank you. Diolch yn fawr.