Improving Cancer Services

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:31 pm on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:31, 26 March 2019

I thank the Member for that important question, and of course I'm aware of the calls to introduce a 20-day treatment target for pancreatic cancer. While I absolutely appreciate the points the Member has made about the nature of pancreatic cancer—its difficulty in being diagnosed early, its aggressive nature once it is detected—in the end, I do not think it would be equitable to introduce a target specifically for one tumour type.

Our approach has always been to offer people with any type of cancer the opportunity to be treated as quickly as possible. That's why we are introducing a new single cancer pathway, because we're confident that it will support more rapid access to treatment. And that is very important, Llywydd, at a point where more and more people are being referred in for treatment—and that's a success story: more people referred in early, more people being assessed early. There were 32 per cent more people starting definitive treatment within target time in the month ending January of this year than five years ago. And that is a remarkable tribute to the service that is provided here in Wales, the clinicians, and others, who work in it, and their concerns quite certainly extend to pancreatic cancer, and our efforts in cancer as a whole will help to improve services for them too.