I’m only aware of the headline issues in the particular point that you raise, but I think it is an isolated case. And, in fact, the evidence of our statistical evidence of what happens when people make calls is that the great majority of people receive a much faster response, both in red and in the amber category. And that is part of the point where I think we should be proud of what our service is doing. The resilience of the ambulance service in particular, in this winter compared to the one before, and the one before that—I do not think you would have seen the sort of resilience that has generally been delivered by our staff. That is because of the staff, and that is because of a change in the model and the prioritisation of patients with the greatest level of need. And again, I’m really proud of what our ambulance service are delivering, in this, the most demanding time of the year. And management information also shows that attendances at major A&Es are up by as much as 5 per cent for the days following the new year compared to last year. So, demand is continuing to rise, and early in-hospital management data also show that emergency admissions peaked at a five-year high on 27 December.

Now, we are supporting health and social care with record levels of investment, including the additional £50 million support that I’ve previously announced. That’s in addition to the £43 million for the primary care fund, and £60 million for this year’s intermediate care fund, to help prevent unnecessary admissions and delayed discharges. And on delayed discharges of care, we again have a good story to tell in Wales. We’ve gone from a period of a high a few years ago to sustaining a level of reduction. There is always more to do, and that is absolutely the approach I take, in understanding and recognising the achievements and the improvement that is there, and again with what more we need to do to see further improvement, with different partners needing to be involved, engaged and having a stake in that improvement. All of this is being delivered against a backdrop of sustained austerity for public services, and that is an unavoidable reality for all of us in this Chamber, but, more importantly, for our staff and the general public.

We have made different choices to England, which, of course, has been in the news in the last week or so—different choices on planning and funding our health and social care system together. That’s why we chose not to make cuts to social care that Simon Stevens, and others in NHS England, are now saying are a very real problem for them. We were criticised for the approach that we took, in seeing health and social care together in the last term, but I say to people in this Chamber, who are now urging us for more money for social care and for the national health service, not just to look at yesterday, in the final budget, but at the additional £25 million announcement in the draft budget, and an extra £310 million on top of that in the final budget yesterday. We are funding social care to levels that are not seen in other parts of the UK, and we should all be proud of the choice we are making, but it does not come consequence free for other parts of our public services.

I said previously in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee that we were better prepared for winter than ever before. We’ve learnt from our previous winters. And, in addition, there will, of course, be more learning to come from this winter and more improvements for the years ahead. But I say again that we will expect challenging days ahead, where the pressures will escalate and reduce again. Each of us in this Chamber should feel extremely grateful and fortunate that we are here and not facing those front-line pressures that our staff do.

We will continue to work with partners to deliver the very best possible care at the most demanding time of year, and that is only possible because of the staff we have in health and social care.