Kirsty Williams
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have criticised the further reduction in Welsh cancer waiting times, branding the figures as “disgraceful”.
New figures for June show that only 84.3% of newly-diagnosed Welsh urgent suspected cancer patients started their treatment within 62 days. This is down from 88.5% in May 2014, a fall of over 4 percentage points.
The Welsh Government’s target of 95% of urgent suspected cancer patients starting treatment in the 62 day window has not been met since June 2008, over six years ago.
Kirsty Williams AM, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said:
“The Labour Health Minister’s pledge to turn around these disgraceful waiting times has come to nothing. In fact, waiting times are getting worse under his watch.
“We cannot keep leaving cancer patients and their families in the lurch without the timely treatment they need. Waiting for over two months to start treatment is completely unacceptable, yet for many cancer patients it’s the reality under Welsh Labour’s NHS.
“The Welsh Labour Government’s cancer waiting time target hasn’t been met for over 6 years. I wish I could say this was the extent of the problems in our health service, but the simple fact is that the Welsh Labour Government constantly fail to deliver for Wales.”
