Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I'm very pleased to open this debate on our committee's report on primary care clusters.

Now, for patients, primary healthcare is their first point of contact with the healthcare system in the NHS. The main source of primary healthcare is in general practice. Primary care clusters are groups of general practitioners working with other health and social care professionals, and they do so in order to plan and provide services locally. The committee decided to undertake a review into primary care clusters as we wanted to take a close look at whether this model of working is delivering improved services to patients and whether it is on track to make the systemic changes we know are needed within primary care. 

From December 2016 to February 2017 we ran a public consultation. We received 47 written responses, representing a range of healthcare organisations, professional groups and individual clinical staff. We heard oral evidence from a number of witnesses and at events held in Carmarthen, Caernarfon and Wrexham we met with GPs, practice managers and other representatives from clusters and LHBs. The group discussions focused on the maturity of clusters, cluster development, workforce, funding, patient satisfaction, and accountability. The evidence we heard helped us come to some very clear conclusions and enabled us to make robust recommendations to the Cabinet Secretary.