Cancer Screening Programmes

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 1 May 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:21, 1 May 2019

Thank you for the question. You're correct that we started introducing the new, more sensitive and, importantly, easier to administer test from January this year. It will be fully implemented across the whole of Wales by June this year. Actually, when people receive their invite to undertake the test, that's part of the direct contact with people, and it's also part of our broader message about the fact that screening really does save lives. It's important to introduce it in a way where we don't actually provide more demand than our system can cope with. That's why we're having a phased approach, having greater sensitivity within the test to make sure that we have the right number of people to deliver treatment after that. So, we'll continue, at each point, to review again the figures on uptake and the impact that means for the service. You can expect to hear on a regular basis that encouragement, a simple message from the Government and Public Health Wales to use the test, to take it up, because undertaking that screening really will save lives.