6. Debate on the Health and Social Care Committee Report — 'Waiting well? The impact of the waiting times backlog on people in Wales'

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:14 pm on 29 June 2022.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 4:14, 29 June 2022

Buffy Williams was asking me about cancer care, and you'll be aware that there are new rapid diagnostic centres now in every health board. The Cardiff one will be coming online later this year. Seventy-five million pounds has been provided to upgrade diagnostic capacity, including new MRI and CT equipment. Twelve million pounds has been invested for linear accelerators in Betsi Cadwaladr and Swansea Bay, and, with the Welsh Government, Aneurin Bevan and Cardiff, we are investing £16 million extra in terms of endoscopy.

There are so many issues that you touched on: communication with people, the data, monthly updates. I'm getting monthly updates, so I'm keeping an eye on how we're progressing every step of the way, and then I can put a bit of heat on people. So, I was really disappointed, if I'm honest, with the cancer rates in April, and I was able to go straight to the health boards and say, 'Look, you need to step up here.' So, those monthly assurance meetings, for me, are going to be critical. I can assure you that our orthopaedics are in the targets.

And prevention, you know, you can't put everything into the planned care plan, but, of course, prevention is key. If you want to stop cancer, then you need to stop people smoking, you need to make sure that they eat well—all of these things—but you can't put it all into the planned care plan. We've got lots of other areas where we're doing that. The same thing with care. I spend a lot of my time working with my colleague Julie Morgan just trying to address the care issue that is so integral to our ability to tackle this issue.