9. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Cancer Services Improvement Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:35 pm on 31 January 2023.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 6:35, 31 January 2023

Thanks very much. Well, you're right, and I think we just have to constantly be trying to learn from what works. So, for example, we are now targeting screening when it comes to bowel cancer, and people are sent a faecal immunochemical test, and it's been really interesting to see that people seem to be more willing to use the FIT test that they can do at home, rather than coming into a surgery and whatever. So, we've got to use more of what works and make sure we target, as you say, some of those deprived areas. And there's some great work being done, for example, I think, in Dawn Bowden's constituency in relation to trying to encourage men in particular to take up the opportunity of bowel cancer screening, and the Moondance Foundation have been pushing this and just trying to make sure that, actually, we engage people, get people to take up the opportunities when they're given them. And so I think we've learnt quite a lot through the vaccination programme of leaving nobody behind, and we've just got to keep on using those techniques now when it comes to chasing down people who are not taking up those opportunities when it comes to screening.