4. What action will the Cabinet Secretary take to improve services for cancer patients in Wales in 2017? OAQ(5)0197(HWS)

Thank you for the question. The Welsh Government’s intentions were set out in November last year in the updated ‘Cancer Delivery Plan for Wales’. Through the national implementation group, there will be a focus on early diagnosis and health boards will continue to prioritise cancer waiting times.

Thank you very much for the reply, Cabinet Secretary. During the General Election in 2010, Labour promised to provide every cancer patient in Wales with a key worker by 2011. However, the recent Wales cancer patient experience survey found that 14 per cent of respondents still do not have a key worker. Also, it is not mandatory for Public Health Wales to collect data on key workers. What action will the Cabinet Secretary take to ensure that these vital data are collected and when does he expect that cancer patients in Wales will receive the level of care promised back in 2010? I think six to seven years is much longer than our term and the promise should be fulfilled. Thank you.

Well, in answer to the question from the UKIP spokesperson, I again indicated that, from 2013, 66 per cent of cancer patients had a key worker, and, okay, that’s risen to 86 per cent in the most recent survey. So, significant progress and yet more to do, as I previously indicated. Currently, the key worker information’s held within the cancer information system, otherwise known as Canisc. And we do know that needs to be replaced, and so it should then make it easier to understand a range of these areas. Rather than asking health boards to do it manually or to invent a different system to collect the information on key workers, I’m interested in getting a proper approach to collect and allow us to interrogate those data in a meaningful way, not just about key workers, but on a number of other areas. So, that work is being undertaken by the Wales cancer network and by officials across the Government. So, this is an area where I think we can be proud of the progress we’ve made, but as I say, and I regularly say, we still recognise there is more for us to do.

Cabinet Secretary, the cross-party group on asbestos received a presentation at its meeting in May on immunotherapy as a potential treatment in mesothelioma, including the SKOPOS trial at Velindre, looking at how a vaccine called TroVax may work alongside chemotherapy for those who suffer from pleural mesothelioma. Funding for this research runs out in August of this year and there’s concern that the immunotherapy research being carried out in Leicester university, which is heavily dependent on the trial work carried out by the Cardiff research group, could be compromised. Do you agree with me, Cabinet Secretary, this is pioneering work being carried out in Velindre, and is key to identifying new ways of treating mesothelioma? And can you assure me that you’ll look at what funding can be provided to ensure that this work can continue beyond August?

I thank the Member for raising the issue. Mesothelioma is something that I’m particularly interested in. Without wishing to go over my previous role, somebody else in the Chamber and I were lawyers before coming to this place and we actually dealt with and worked on a number of mesothelioma cases. Meeting members of the family and having to witness appeals was particularly striking at times—a very difficult experience to go through, because mesothelioma is, to date, always fatal. The path to the end is a quick and a distressing one. So, I’m particularly interested in research to potentially not just extend life, but save life as well. I’d be grateful, actually, if the Member would write to me. I’d be happy to discuss the matter with her in more detail—I understand you are the chair of the cross-party group—to understand where we are now and the approach that we’ll take with other parts of the UK in helping to improve outcomes in the future.