Members of the Wales Cancer Alliance were pleased to meet with Eluned Morgan MS, Minister for Health and Social Services, earlier this month.
It was a first chance for our member organisations to sit down with the Minister and discuss the forthcoming Cancer Services Action Plan since it was announced in May. The Action Plan will play an important role in delivering the ambitions of the Quality Statement for Cancer, and the Minister shared her expectations for what it should deliver and how it should inform the planning and delivery of cancer services at a health board level.
The Alliance set out our views on the Action Plan, highlighting the need for it to be genuinely co-produced with the third sector, health and care professionals, and people living with cancer. We also had the opportunity to raise some key areas we’d like to see included in the Action Plan – such as a specific focus on young people with cancer, and the less survivable cancers – ahead of further opportunities we’ll have to feed into its content before it is published.
Other topics discussed included the immediate priority of recovering cancer services from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, progress to establish an NHS Executive, and ensuring Wales is adopting new innovations in diagnostics and treatment at pace. We are grateful to the Minister for her time and members are looking forward to meeting with her again in September to further discuss the Cancer Services Action Plan and how we can ensure this delivers for people with cancer across Wales.