6. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on how the Welsh Government is supporting people affected by neuroendocrine tumours in Wales? OAQ51647

Yes. The Welsh Government is committed to improving neuroendocrine tumour services. The Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee commissions care for patients in north Wales, and is working with health boards to implement the recommendations of its service review for south Wales to look at how patients can be better supported.

Cabinet Secretary, will you join with me in congratulating my constituent, Janet Lewis, whose leadership in devising solutions to improve healthcare provision and equality for patients with neuroendocrine tumours led to her becoming the well-deserved winner of the endocrine nurse award for 2018? More generally, how is the Welsh Government working with Welsh patients and healthcare professionals to make them aware of the specialist services offered at the University Hospital of Wales site, so that they may benefit from the expertise of Janet and her colleagues?

Well, let me start by recognising the achievement of the Member's constituent, Janet Lewis. I'm always pleased to hear of yet another healthcare professional in Wales being recognised by her profession for excellence and achievement. It does say something about the fact that we are improving a range of our services here in Wales, which is not always recognised in other parts of the United Kingdom, but there is real excellence within the service here, and this is one such example. Because it did come from a review that recognised that we weren't doing well enough. Following that review, which actually brought in patient representatives as well, they had some confidence that we'd looked at the right things, and that service is being rolled out. There's been another peer review to check on progress, and that set out a number of areas for further improvement from Cardiff and Vale themselves. Again, there's something about learning, and actually that they are now being proactive and, through the commissioning arrangements of the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee, making sure that people are generally aware of the excellence that is now being developed within Cardiff and Vale, to be made available for people right across south Wales as well.

Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what considerations are given to screening patients who are at a higher risk of contracting neuroendocrine tumours, such as relatives of sufferers or patients who suffer from rare family syndromes such as multiple endocrine neoplasia or Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, because in all of those there's been a very clear genetic link established? I just wonder if they need to have automatic screening rather than waiting until they have actually got the disease.

This comes back to one of our challenges. I would always like it to be the case that we could have a screening programme that was effective in terms of the value that we get from it, in terms of money and also the outcomes and helping us to identify people early. But part of our difficulty in this area is that there isn't a full understanding of what causes neuroendocrine tumours. As with every area, where we look to have a screening programme we look for genuine scientific evidence. We all like to be evidence-led, not dogma-led, on this issue about what we should do. So, if there is an evidence-led process and there is an appropriate screening programme for individuals who are at greater risk, then we will of course look at that seriously, and as with other things, look to implement it here in Wales.