Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 8 July 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:27, 8 July 2020

[Inaudible.]—cancer information, and I can give the Member the assurance that the decision I made to both introduce and trial the single cancer pathway is going to be the path forward when we restart new performance measures in the future, as we progressively restart more forms of NHS activity. I have already decided that we will not be reporting the old measures. I think it would be unhelpful and confusing to report the old measures under the urgent and non-urgent pathway, and we will only be reporting as the single cancer pathway, which, as the Member knows, has been supported by both clinicians and the third sector cancer charities. And that, I think, will give us a much more accurate indication of what is really happening in terms of cancer treatment and waits. So, I expect that to provide the level of clarity and transparency in how quickly we're getting through the number being referred in to our cancer services, as we deal with needing to restart services. Because, as the Member will know, endoscopy services were suspended during the pandemic; they're now restarting. But that does give us significant challenges in a range of our work, not just in cancer, but we'll continue to be open and transparent about what we're doing and what that means for people here in Wales.