It's a pleasure to take part in this debate this afternoon, and I'm proudly wearing my Marie Curie badge, the daffodil, in support of their work. Sadly, 50 per cent of the population will receive a diagnosis of cancer at some point in their lifetime, and we all know someone who has had cancer, and tragically, far too many of us know someone who has passed away. Wales has some of the worst cancer survival rates in the western world, which is why we have to ensure that our cancer services are world beating. Our population can't afford a cancer strategy that lacks ambition. As my colleagues have alluded to, the problems in our cancer pathways predate the pandemic, and like many of the issues facing our NHS, many of these problems could be put down to staffing issues, or rather the lack of coherent workforce planning. 

We all know that early diagnosis is key to long-term cancer survival, yet we have the lowest numbers of consultant radiologists per 100,000 patients of anywhere in the UK. And what is worse is that, according to the Royal College of Radiologists, we are due to lose as much as one third of that workforce over the next three to four years due to retirement. I can't imagine the impact this will have on existing staff as they will be expected to pick up the slack in the system. We know that the national cancer clinical director for Wales has stated that the service will have to run at about 130 per cent of capacity just to catch up to where we were pre pandemic. But, we don't want to return the service to pre-pandemic levels and, to coin a popular phrase at the moment, we want to build back better.

In order to achieve that, we have to urgently address historical staffing shortfalls. We have critical shortages across the field, not just in diagnostics. We have gaps right across clinical oncology; nearly one in 10 posts remain unfilled. As a result of shortages, one in five cancer patients in Wales lack specialist cancer nursing support during diagnosis or treatment. This means we are struggling to provide proper care now, let alone allow for new or expanded services. Macmillan Cancer Support suggests that Wales will need to increase its specialist cancer support nursing workforce by a staggering 80 per cent by the end of this decade in order to meet the demand. And Cancer Research UK highlight that these gaps in the NHS workforce are a fundamental barrier to transforming cancer services and improving cancer survival rates. Yet, despite the well-founded concerns raised by the third sector and clinical cancer leads, the Welsh Government has no plan for the specialist cancer workforce.

In fact, the workforce strategy for health and social care fails to even mention cancer. One of the biggest health issues facing our nation and this Welsh Government has no plan to tackle it. Unless Ministers grasp the nettle and address these concerns, then cancer will continue to be a death sentence for far too many. Our cancer survival rates will continue to plummet, and Welsh citizens will continue to lose loved ones needlessly. It's time we had an ambitious cancer strategy with the aim of eradicating needless cancer deaths, and a plan to deliver a workforce to meet the future needs of cancer patients; a plan to support patients throughout their cancer journey from diagnosis to cure; and a plan that builds in capacity to meet the challenges of the COVID backlog and for future pandemics. I urge Members to back our motion today.