At the start of the parliamentary review, there was a conversation about how much would wait until the end of the parliamentary review process and how much would need to carry on in terms of conversation. You'll have seen the lengthy statement from the medical director, Dr Phil Kloer, of Hywel Dda, about an ongoing conversation and consultation that the clinical community have been having within Hywel Dda about a range of difficult choices that they feel they need to discuss with the public.

I don't share the Member's view that the parliamentary review means that everything must stop and the consultation must be restarted at some point in the future. I think the parliamentary review highlights a number of points about needing to have a conversation, about not putting things off, and actually this has got to be openly done by the health board and its employees. The clinical community have to be engaged in that conversation with each other and with the public that they live amongst and that they serve.

I don't think it would be the right thing for me to instruct, or attempt to instruct, the health board to stop its consultation now. I think the test is whether they will have a consultation that is open with the public, where they can honestly explain what is happening and where the staff feel empowered to properly engage in that with their communities. Because whether they are to undertake a consultation with the public in spring or in the summer or in the autumn, there is simply no avoiding the reality that there will always be contentious choices to make in west Wales, in north Wales, in south Wales and mid Wales. We either have a choice over whether we say that the national health service and social care must engage in that debate now and confront some of these challenges and have a difficult conversation and then make choices, or we put that off and make it even less likely that that will happen in the future, until at some point something goes wrong. I don't think that's the right thing to do. 

I understand why opposition Members in particular urge me to intervene and to stop things. I do appreciate that. To be honest, if my party were in opposition we may well be asking awkward questions of a similar nature to anyone in the Government as well. I actually think the reason why Ministers are here to do a job is to make a difference to the country, and some of that is about allowing difficult choices to go ahead and be made. I'm not going to try and attempt to instruct Hywel Dda or any other health board to stop the consultation with its staff or with the public. I think the consultation has to run, the public have to be properly engaged, a choice will have to be made and, ultimately, that choice could land upon my desk.