6. Will the First Minister provide an update on what action the Welsh Government is taking to improve cancer survival rates? OAQ52610

Our approach to improving cancer survival is set out in the cancer delivery plan for Wales. That includes a specific focus on detecting cancer early, timely access to treatment and the delivery of high-quality care.

Thank you. First Minister, the key to improving the cancer survival rates of Wales's cancer patients is early diagnosis. I have been contacted by a GP expressing concern over the number of cancer referrals that get routinely downgraded by a consultant. The GP who raised this issue with me believes, as I do, that the GP should be informed of this decision so that they can challenge the decision. A GP knows their patient far better than a consultant who has never seen the patient, and while the consultant might have specialist knowledge about cancer, the GP has specialist knowledge about the patient. So, First Minister, will you make it a mandatory requirement that GPs are informed of any decisions to downgrade a cancer referral?

Well, I'm reluctant to step into the place of an oncologist in terms of what that oncologist might think. I would assume that it would be good practice anyway for a GP to be informed of progress with regard to a patient. Now, people have different tumours; they react in different ways with different cancers. We know that, which is why, in the future, it's gene therapy that carries the spark of great hope for many, many people. Whilst I'm surprised to hear about the example—and if she wants to share more information with me, then I'll be glad to look at that—I would think that it would be good practice for the flow of information to be two way.

First Minister, for a number of years now, I have used First Minister's questions to ask you to address when your Government plans to meet its cancer waiting time targets, and you have, to be fair, given me regular assurances that it will happen in the very near future. But the latest figures for June 2018 showed that the target for patients referred via the urgent route is being missed by close to 10 per cent. It is clear that one of the barriers to meeting these targets is poor workforce planning for the diagnostic roles. What assurances can you provide that the newly created Health Education and Improvement Wales will focus on more effective workforce planning? And as your tenure as First Minister nears to its end, can I ask one final time: when does your Government aim to meet its cancer waiting time targets?

Well, all I can say is that we have the highest survival rates yet reported, and that surely is something that we should welcome—72.7 per cent of those diagnosed between 2005-09 and 2010-14 survived at least one year, 57.1 per cent are expected to survive at least five years, and premature death caused by cancer has fallen by around 10 per cent in the past decade. Those figures speak for themselves in terms of what's happened with cancer delivery. [Interruption.] Well, she talks of targets—that's a fair question—but the answer I give is, 'Look at the results'. The reality is that there are more and more people who are not just being cured—that's five years free of cancer—but also living with cancer in a way that was impossible 10 or 15 years ago, and I think that that is something for us to celebrate. Yes, of course, we want to make sure that more people are seen as quickly as possible, and 85.9 per cent of people newly diagnosed with cancer via the urgent route started definitive treatment within the target time in June, 97.4 per cent of those not via the urgent route. But we can see from the survival rates that things are moving in the right direction.

There was a story in the media yesterday, as it happens, about a patient who had survived cancer but who had found a new growth. There was an application for a PET scan, and that was rejected. The reason for that rejection has not been given, but according to the community health council in north Wales, it’s far easier to access PET scans in certain areas than in others. There is inconsistency.

Now, as we know that early diagnosis is a key driver when it comes to surviving cancer, isn’t it clear that we need, first of all, access that is as swift as possible, particularly for people who have survived cancer in the past, but also that there is clear inconsistency, as we saw with mpMRI scans recently? Will you admit that the lack of consistency means that some people in some parts of Wales have less chance of surviving cancer than others?

No, I don’t accept that there’s a lack of consistency. I know that the scanners are available—there’s one in Cardiff and there’s one in Wrexham. We know that the system is not subject to the amount of capacity available. So, there is capacity in the system. It’s very difficult, of course, to know the reason, and why the individual was given that response, but there is no evidence that people in north Wales, for example, are in a worse position than those in south Wales. But without knowing all the details, of course, it’s very difficult to talk more about it.