Will the Minister provide a timeline for a national rollout of rapid diagnostic centers?
The Quality Statement for Cancer does not draw a distinction between specific cancer types. Once a clinical consensus has been reached on the nationally optimised pathway for haematological cancers this will be added to the Quality Statement alongside other optimised pathways which have already been developed. It is likely that this pathway will be added by the end of the year.
There is no intention to introduce specific targets for the diagnostic stage of cancer pathways or for different types of cancer. People affected by cancer should start definitive treatment within 62 days of their point of suspicion and a performance threshold of 75% has been set by the Welsh Government.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) sets outs clearly the symptoms that should result in referral for haematological cancers; including referral symptoms that have a likelihood of cancer of as low as 3%. The NHS and third sector have collaborated over a number of years on delivering training, guidance and tools to support general practice in the recognition of symptoms of cancer, including blood cancers. This will continue to be part of the approach in Wales as set out in the Quality Statement.
Rapid Diagnostic Centres of the kind piloted in Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Swansea Bay University Health Boards do not accept referrals under the NICE recommended criteria for suspected cancer. People who meet these criteria are referred through normal processes for urgent investigation. Rapid Diagnostic Centres provide an additional referral route for GPs who suspect cancer but the symptoms to not match the referral criteria recommended by NICE. The adoption of one-stop-shop formats for the assessment of such vague symptoms is a matter for health boards to consider in terms of their population need and their available diagnostic resources. The Wales Cancer Network is providing programme support to health boards to develop their business cases.
A significant uplift in training places was announced in 2020 for oncology and related specialties. However, there is no intention at this time to develop a cancer workforce plan. Workforce planning is the responsibility of health boards and trusts. Health Education and Improvement Wales is working with the Wales Cancer Network to consider how to support workforce planning to support the single cancer pathway. This work will support health boards and trusts with their workforce planning.
People with haematological cancer should be assigned a key worker in the same way as other cancer patients.