Written question WQ84514
- Asked by
- Rhun ap IorwerthPlaid
- To be answered by
- Minister for Health and Social Services
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 9 days
Question
What is Welsh Government doing to address concerns that blood cancer diagnosis and treatment pathways have been chronically underrepresented in previous cancer policies, and to rectify this in future documents?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services
Welsh Government has invested nearly £250 million of additional in-year funding in recovery of services, including £5 million in cancer services. I have also announced £170 million in recurrent funding for recovery and am bringing forward a planned care recovery plan that will include cancer. As set out in the Quality Statement for Cancer, health boards and trusts are required to have an immediate focus on recovering the pre-pandemic waiting list volume and I expect to see this come through strongly in health board Integrated Medium Term Plans. Health boards and trust are delivering additional sessions and working with the independent sector to help recover cancer services.
A diagnosis of cancer can be devastating and puts individuals and their families under significant psychological pressure. I expect clinical teams to deliver person-centred cancer care; including the allocation of a key worker, conducting a holistic needs assessment and the development of a co-produced care plan. Holistic needs assessment includes consideration of the financial and psychological impact of the cancer diagnosis and its treatment. Patients should be sign-posted to benefits advice from organisations such as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and cancer charities and also to be able to access psychological therapies when needed.
Our new approach to improving cancer services does not make a distinction between solid and haematological cancers - it is aimed at improving services for all types of cancer and includes the development of national pathways for haematological cancers. Haematological cancers also benefit from the legal requirement to make recommended drug therapies available.
The Welsh Government does not routinely collect data on the number of people with haematological cancers diagnosed through health board Rapid Diagnostic Centres. Data relating to cancer diagnosis is published by Public Health Wales: Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU). The Welsh Government publishes data relating to the number of people starting their first definitive treatment and this data is available by the cancer type at:
Suspected cancer pathway (closed pathways): The number of patients starting their first definitive treatment and those informed they do not have cancer by local health board, tumour site, age group, sex, measure and month (gov.wales).