We've listened to a number of very powerful speeches illustrating the catastrophe that is the Betsi Cadwaladr health board, over which the current Cabinet Secretary, and the previous one who's temporarily left the Chamber, presided. Now, for many, many years, the Labour Party has been accustomed to saying that the national health service is the envy of the world. Well, as far as Betsi Cadwaladr is concerned, I don't know which world they're thinking of—it must be the planet Pluto, because it certainly isn't the envy of anybody in this world of planet Earth. 

Michelle Brown raised a very important point in her speech earlier on, and that is the unresponsiveness of the Betsi Cadwaladr health board towards its patients with the complaints that they've made. We've had a massive number of individual examples that have been trotted out here this afternoon, and I make no apology for returning to a theme that I have raised in the Chamber on several occasions since I was elected: the denuding of the Welsh uplands based around Blaenau Ffestiniog of any substantial health service provision. It's well over a year now since I asked the First Minister what the Welsh Government was going to do about this, given that Betsi Cadwaladr is in special measures. I said, in Gwynedd in particular, in the area around Blaenau Ffestiniog, the record is exactly the opposite to that which the Government claimed in its 'Taking Wales Forward' document's section on health, where they said, 

'We are committed to helping improve health and well-being for all.'

What's happened in the Welsh uplands is entirely the opposite. In the seven well-being areas defined by Gwynedd Council, there is a community hub hospital in every one apart from Blaenau Ffestiniog, because their 24-hour service was closed several years ago and downgraded to a 10-hour health centre, and downgraded again since then. Since 2013, therefore, we’ve seen the closure of a hospital, a loss of hospital beds, the closure of the x-ray service, the closure of the minor injuries unit, the closure of teledermatology clinics and therapy services, two rural branch surgeries have closed, and the GP practice in Blaenau Ffestiniog was supposed to have four full-time doctors, but it’s only got one salaried doctor and a variety of locums. As far as Blaenau Ffestiniog is concerned, they haven’t got a national health service; they've got a notional health service. And in the 14 months since I made that indictment to the First Minister, absolutely nothing has changed despite the special measures, and something has got to be done about it.