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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:25 pm on 31 January 2023.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 6:25, 31 January 2023

Thank you, Minister, for your honest statement and also for your achievements, despite everything that you're having to do in the health field.

I just wanted to share with Members the discussion that took place in the women's health cross-party group in December, where we discussed the five gynae cancers. One of the speakers was a completely excellent patient campaigner who you may have heard of called Jim Sweet, whose wife died of ovarian cancer, and he's since made himself into a real expert in ovarian cancer, because she died two weeks after correct diagnosis, having been misdiagnosed as having irritable bowel syndrome and being sent to the gastroenterology clinic. I believe that this is not unusual.

He also was a great expert in comparing the way in which the healthcare system treats men versus women, and I know that this is something that you are very worried about. He compared the Rolls-Royce service that he got for prostate cancer versus the really fragmented service that his wife got. How do we improve that, because there clearly is a bias against women who complain about particular symptoms, who are not heard clearly enough? And how do we improve awareness of symptoms across all clinical specialisms so that, for example, gastroenterology is working really closely with cancer services, because this is not infrequently the case that these sorts of concerns are misdiagnosed by people who probably ought to know a lot more about ovarian cancer, and also some of the preventative measures around breastfeeding, multiple pregnancies, contraceptive pill, which, obviously, can massively decrease your likelihood of getting cancer, as well as the fact that eight out of 10 cases occur in women over 50?