I don’t accept your characterisation of the deficit as double what’s across our border. Over 90 per cent of trusts in England are in deficit. I just don’t accept that is an accurate and honest presentation of the position. In terms of the reality of managing within their means and managing to reconfigure services and deliver—a reshaped primary care—that actually relies on our relationship with our partners. It relies on our ability to recruit the right mix of staff into working in a different way. The direction of travel we are taking is actually encouraging people to work in Wales, and to stay in Wales as well. It’s a better environment for GPs to work in, as well as other professionals too.

There will never be a time when the NHS is free from financial pressures—and I don’t try to pretend that at all. But I don’t think that the conversations around the headline deficits that we’ve discussed at length over the last two days are any sort of excuse for not getting on with delivering a much greater emphasis on primary care, in shifting services into primary care, and recognising the key importance of this area of the service for the future of our national health service.