Thank you, Deputy Llywydd, and thank you to everyone who’s taken part in this debate. I think it’s been a good-natured debate and there have been some very important points that have been raised about some of the challenges that are presented as a result of having two different health systems on both sides of the border, and the consequences that many of our constituents face as a result of that, particularly in mid Wales, as Russ George has said, and indeed in parts of north Wales, as has been identified by Mark Isherwood and Janet, and of course we mustn’t forget either, Oscar, your comments in relation to some of your constituents down in Gwent.

These are really serious issues and they do boil down to poor planning, sometimes on the English side and sometimes on the Welsh side, a lack of communication between health organisations on either side of the border when they’re trying to plan for the needs of their population, and a lack of recognition sometimes as well about the differences in terms of the aspirations of the Welsh Government on targets and treatments. It’s all very well, Cabinet Secretary, you saying that every health board has the right to refer across the border—that’s absolutely right—but very often there’s a commissioning process that you have to go through in order to commission those services across the border, or those treatments, or referrals, in a way that there aren’t barriers to English patients having referrals to some of those specialist hospitals.

Very often, my postbag is filled up with reports from individuals saying they’re having problems in accessing some of those services that they need to access. I do recognise that this Welsh Government has given a commitment to maintaining those cross-border health service relationships and that’s very important. We certainly didn’t have it when there was a coalition arrangement with Plaid Cymru in the third Assembly, where there was a deliberate policy decision that was taken to repatriate services across the Welsh border and bring all of those patients back. It was a great disservice to patients in many parts of Wales, that particular policy, but I’m pleased that that situation has now been reversed and that the importance of maintaining these health service relationships is absolutely recognised.

The Cabinet Secretary said another important phrase: he said that Welsh patients shouldn’t be treated in a ‘less favourable manner’ as a result of being referred to a hospital over the border in England. But the reality is, they are. In north Wales, if there’s a patient who is referred from the Betsi Cadwaladr health board for orthopaedic surgery to a hospital over the border in England, even if that hospital is able to treat them within the 18-week target that the English NHS has upon it in terms of waiting-time targets, they are very often having to wait for 52 weeks because the Betsi Cadwaladr health board is saying, ‘You’re not allowed to treat them in any time less than 52 weeks because that’s a disservice’—[Interruption.] That’s absolutely the case. I’ve got copies of letters, Cabinet Secretary, which I’m happy to share with you, if that’s what you would like to see.