Cancer Services Action Plan

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 28 June 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:15, 28 June 2022

Well, Llywydd, all health boards—apart from Cardiff, which will begin later this year—now have rapid diagnostic centres. So, I'm not quite sure what problem the Member sees with pace, when they're already happening in six out of seven health boards in Wales. There are three of them operating in north Wales, where Rhun ap Iorwerth will have a direct interest; one in each of the three district general hospitals now has a rapid diagnostic centre. And Llywydd, it's important to remember what those rapid diagnostic centres were for: people who present with symptoms to their GP do not always have classically and the directly symptoms that link to a possibility of cancer. They present with what are called by the profession 'vague symptoms' and up until now, there hasn't always been a direct route for a GP to make sure that someone who they think may be in that position, but where the symptoms aren't definitive, to make sure that that person can get the assessment that they need. That is what the new centres are for, and they are a significant addition to the landscape that we have here in Wales.

Llywydd, I've said already that the impact of COVID on cancer services in Wales has been real, but in the last year—and health works on financial years in the way that it counts these things—referrals were 17 per cent higher than the year before the pandemic began, and 22 per cent more people received treatment for cancer than in the year before the pandemic hit. So, despite the real pressures that the system is under, it has responded, I think, with real determination and with considerable success.