Written question WQ89472

The Quality Statement for Cancer sets out the Welsh Government’s expectations of health board and trust planned services. It includes a national optimal pathway for pancreatic cancer. We expect health boards and trusts to plan towards the delivery of this pathway, but we recognise the capacity constraints that are affecting services at the current time.

The Welsh Cancer Surveillance and Intelligence Unit at Public Health Wales is responsible for processing and publishing cancer survival statistics. The most recent figures for those diagnosed between 2015-19 demonstrate one-year, age standardised, net survival is estimated at 26%, and five-year survival is estimated at 9%. A comparison of age-standardised population mortality rates between the UK nations can be found at:

https://publichealthwales.shinyapps.io/Cancer_Reporting_Tool/

The most recent international comparisons of cancer survival that include Wales (as part of the UK) and pancreatic cancer are:

• The International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (1995-2014)

• Global surveillance of trends in cancer survival 2000-14 (CONCORD-3)

Our approach to improving cancer outcomes is set out in the Quality Statement for Cancer. This approach is based on improving the quality and consistency of care as defined in a series of national pathways and services specifications that health boards and trusts will plan to deliver. This includes a pathway for pancreatic cancer and a service specification for hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery. This is complemented by: cancer being one of the NHS’s six planning priorities, the cancer waiting time target, enhanced accountability arrangements for cancer services, and a national intervention to improve cancer waiting times.

It is the responsibility of health boards and trusts to plan and deploy their workforce according to their available resources and population need. The Welsh Government expects health boards and trusts to do this in a way that delivers national planning priorities, such as cancer, and in particular the nationally agreed pathways. At a national level the NHS Executive’s cancer network includes a routine meeting for upper gastrointestinal cancer clinicians to collaborate on service development and delivers national meetings for clinicians involved in pancreatic cancer care. Given the focus on recovery of NHS cancer waiting times, I do not believe it is an appropriate time to request health boards and trusts undertake an analysis of the workforce across multiple specialties and organisations involved in providing pancreatic cancer care.