Will the Minister provide an update on the availability of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for the treatment of pancreatic cancer in Wales?
The Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC) is responsible for commissioning stereotactic ablative radiotherapy on behalf of health boards in Wales. WHSSC has provided for access to this technique for people with pancreatic cancer that meet the inclusion criteria. The commissioning policy can be found at:
It is a matter for health boards to deploy their available workforce to deliver the national optimal pathway for pancreatic cancer as part of their planning to meet the wider healthcare needs of their populations. We have already seen an increase in the proportion of people receiving active treatment for pancreatic cancer following the centralisation of the surgical service in south Wales and additional operating capacity introduced.
The Welsh Government, through Health and Care Research Wales, provides £19.6m per year to fund infrastructure to support and facilitate the delivery of research across health and care settings across Wales. This funding enables NHS organisations to undertake high quality clinical trials in a broad range of disease areas, including pancreatic cancer. Our wider approach to cancer research has been set out in the Cancer Research Strategy for Wales, which can be found at:
https://walescancerresearchcentre.org/crest/
We want patients to have access to research studies across all conditions including pancreatic cancer and have funded a Health and Care Research Wales Delivery Hub to provide national level support to facilitate the efficient set up of studies so that the opportunity for participants to take part in studies is available as quickly as possible. The hub also provides a horizon scanning function for all studies open across the UK.
Health and Care Research Wales will be launching new functionality as part of the UK Wide Be Part of Research service to enable individuals to sign up their interest in taking part in research studies, joining a register that provides the opportunity to be matched to research activities and studies that might be suitable.
Decisions about clinical research trials are taken locally and led by investigators who have an interest in a particular speciality. The NHS Executive’s cancer network brings health boards in Wales together through its cancer site groups (e.g. upper GI cancer) and uses these forums to share intelligence on open trials.