Written question WQ87370
- Asked by
- Rhys ab OwenIndependent
- To be answered by
- Minister for Health and Social Services
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 11 days
Question
What action is the Welsh Government taking to ensure all health boards across Wales meet the 75 per cent target for treatment within 62 days of when cancer is suspected, as outlined in the new cancer improvement plan?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services
The Welsh Government has invested £170 million annually as part of our plan to address the backlog in waiting times, including improvement in cancer waiting times. This includes tackling the backlog of patients who are waiting over 62 days for their cancer treatment.
The NHS Cancer Services Improvement Plan will help us build on existing cancer services to improve patient outcomes and experiences, prevent and detect cancer earlier and reduce waiting times. To support this, we recently announced £86 million for new cancer diagnostic and treatment facilities and are increasing the number of training places for specialists in cancer diagnosis, treatment and palliative care.
We continue to prioritise the most urgent cases, which is why we are seeing the highest number of patients each month as suspected cancer, but who are then downgraded off the cancer pathway. This shows our commitment to see and treat on clinical urgency first while still committing to treat long waiters.
My officials are working closely with all health boards and the cancer network to support those organisations where cancer performance is below where we want it to be. This additional support helps health boards to adopt best practice supported and learn from others. I have already held one cancer summit with health boards, and I have another one planned for early March where health boards will be able to update on the progress they have made over recent months.
Cancer is a closed pathway target, meaning that as health boards treat those patients waiting over the target time, which is the correct thing to do, the performance will be lower than the target, until a time that the backlog is in a balanced position.
In relation to Cardiff and Vale specifically, as the health board addresses the backlog of patients, performance will remain below the target. However, management information shows the backlog of over 62-day patients is reducing, and with that, performance has been increasing, rising from 40.1% in August to 57.8% in November 2022.