Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:51 pm on 7 July 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 2:51, 7 July 2021

(Translated)

Thank you very much, Llywydd. I want to ask about the recovery of the health service too and reference a number of areas. I, too, will refer to this backlog in terms of cancer diagnosis, looking at a different aspect of that. It's a concern to think that thousands of people—over 4,000 people according to Macmillan—who haven't had a diagnosis. But it's a concern to me that what's happened over the past year is that we've exacerbated a problem that already existed, and one problem we had in cancer services was a shortage of workers to do that diagnostic work. I think the Royal College of Radiologists has mentioned that we we are 97 radiologists short here in Wales. You can't have an effective diagnosis and a swift diagnosis service without those staff in place. So, in looking to recovery, can you tell us what resources you will put in place to deliver specifically on resolving some of the workforce problems we have?