Cabinet Secretary, you’ll be acutely aware of the concerns of residents in Pembrokeshire with regard to the changes in the way health services are delivered there. Hywel Dda health board will discuss a series of options this Thursday that seek to reduce the opening of the paediatric ambulatory care unit at Withybush hospital due to recruitment difficulties. Amongst the set of options is the full closure of the paediatric unit, which would be totally unacceptable to me and the people I represent.

Cabinet Secretary, I would like to ask you to ask the health board, as I have, how a single mother who lives in Fishguard with three children, one of them sick, with no transport and on a low income is going to get to and from Glangwili in Camarthen after 6 o’clock at night. Those who arrive by ambulance can expect to pay about £100 in a taxi to get home or face a four-hour journey via public transport. Please could you press the health board on this issue of transport to and from the hospital during this temporary period of closure? Will you ask the health board to ensure that accident and emergency at Withybush continues to assess all patients, regardless of age? Will the Welsh Government commit to support the recruitment of urgently needed posts to the paediatric unit in Haverfordwest? Finally, could you ask the health board to give a categorical assurance that this situation is only temporary?