Cancer charities have joined forces to call for a longer-term national strategy in Wales to improve services after 9,000 people waited too long for treatment last year.

Mark Isherwood raised an Audit Wales report in the Senedd which found cancer services have consistently failed to hit a 75 per cent target for patients to start treatment within 62 days.

Mr Isherwood, who chairs the Senedd’s public accounts committee, asked witnesses for their reflections on the issues identified by the auditor general for Wales.

Lowri Griffiths, chair of the Wales Cancer Alliance, a coalition of charities established nearly 20 years ago, said she was saddened and disappointed by the findings.

The director of policy at Tenovus told the committee: “We’ve long held the view that some of the governance arrangements around cancer services, especially since the development of the quality statement, have not been fit for purpose.”

Hannah Buckingham, of Macmillan Cancer Support, a vice-chair of the alliance, said performance against the 62-day target shows the system cannot keep up with demand.

“It isn’t working for far too many people across Wales,” she told the committee, describing the impact of delays in diagnosis as devastating for cancer patients and their families. “Not just on their physical health but their mental and emotional health as well.”

Ms Buckingham said: “In 2024, we saw, for example, 9,000 people across Wales wait too long to start treatment on that 62-day pathway which is just not good enough quite frankly.”

She added that it is distressing for staff not being able to deliver timely care for patients, calling for a strategic approach to tackling workforce shortages.

Ms Buckingham warned of a lack of robust governance mechanisms to enforce, track and evaluate actions in the three-year NHS cancer improvement plan.