ANGELA BURNS

COLUMNIST

FOR many of us either working or furloughed, days have merged into weeks and then months since the lockdown started, and it’s barely believable that the 100-day milestone passed last week.

I thought this column would be an opportunity for a recap of what I – in my capacity as shadow minster for health – and my Welsh Conservative colleagues have been doing in the Welsh Parliament.

It’s worth emphasising that we have aimed to work with the Labour-led Welsh Government whenever and wherever it has been possible during this crisis, without giving up our duty to scrutinise and hold it to account. There have, of course, been many occasions where I had to.

Also, the pandemic has not been the only health matter in the past three months that affects people across Wales.

Late last month, we Welsh Conservatives helped score a victory with our efforts to keep A&E services open at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital. This was cross-party work that will help save lives, but follows a debate we tabled earlier in the year.

I said that the Welsh Government must improve emergency waiting times across this and other health boards in Wales, because although services have been required less during the pandemic, the First Minister and his government cannot afford to be complacent about health in Wales.

That leads on to another critical issue. Since the lockdown started, figures on A&E usage and treatment times – including cancer – have shown marked downward trends.

Similarly, there has been unease about the diagnosis and treatment times for cancer. Repeatedly, we have seen figures for those being diagnosed with cancer decreasing, month on month and against the same period last year. The figures presented are really worrying. Concern has existed for some weeks now about the impact the coronavirus pandemic may have on cancer diagnoses, treatment, and ultimately, the survivability of patients with cancer.

My overwhelming concern is that these figures mask what might be a future pandemic of people not surviving cancer because it was either not diagnosed, or treatment didn’t start sufficiently fast enough.

Winning the war against Covid, but losing the battle against cancer and other treatable conditions, is too high a price to pay.

Another case I have highlighted relates to cystic fibrosis. Just this week I urged the Welsh Government to make Vertex’s triple therapy for cystic fibrosis patients available as a matter of urgency. This followed the treatment being introduced in England, and I said I was pleased NHS England has led the way in reaching an agreement to make Vertex’s triple therapy (elexacaftor, tezacaftor, ivacaftor) available soon, and called for it to become available to NHS Wales.

The Welsh Government must ensure that cystic fibrosis patients do not miss out on this vital therapy, and I urged Welsh ministers to secure this therapy quickly, so Wales and those living with the condition do not fall behind.

Welsh Conservatives have, I hope you’ll agree, been working hard with the Welsh Government to defeat the dreadful coronavirus, but also highlighting the many other matters so important to us in Wales, and our health.

■ Angela Burns, health spokeswoman for the Welsh Conservatives