Shadow Minister for Local Government, Cllr Janet Finch-Saunders AM is today joining in calls from the Welsh Conservatives for the Welsh Government to establish a National Cancer Plan.

The present system in place is failing Welsh cancer patients. Cancer patients in England have access to 24 life prolonging drugs of which Welsh patients do not. Further to this, the Welsh government isn’t meeting the waiting time targets it set three years ago.

Welsh cancer charities such as Macmillan and CLIC Sargent claim the current system is ‘ill-equipped to deal with the growing number of people needing help’.

The Wales Cancer Alliance is calling for a new national cancer strategy to be developed to increase the standard of cancer care in Wales.

Janet said "Those support systems and treatments available to cancer patients hold great importance to me, with my constituency of Aberconwy having one of the highest cancer incidences in Wales. An all Wales strategy is needed to bring standardised care across health boards so that we can eliminate the differing levels of treatment received by patients in different parts of Wales, and drive up the general standard of care"

Patients and frontline services are suffering under Welsh Labour; evidence for this is demonstrated in the falling numbers of oncology staff in 2010, and further in the lack of access to new cancer drugs in Wales. Investment in the NHS is desperately needed but the Welsh Labour government is cutting the health budget by a billion pounds.

Improving access to these new cancer drugs in Wales would cost £3.3 million a year which is the equivalent to just £1 per person. This policy would be funded by reintroducing a prescription charge of £5 raising £42 million a year to invest back into the NHS. Under Welsh Conservative’s proposal 93% of prescriptions would remain free.

In their 2011 manifesto, the Welsh Conservatives pledged to ‘establish a cancer drugs fund to give Welsh patients the best possible treatments.’ Moreover Welsh Conservatives proposed the appointment of a ‘Cancer Co-ordinator’ for Wales to ‘champion cancer services and implement a robust National Cancer Plan.’