The health Secretary is a kind of professional fire blanket for the failures of the health boards all over Wales and Hywel Dda is no exception to that. Of course, Withybush isn't going to close in the immediate future, but the real question is: is it going to close in due course following a death by a thousand cuts? What we've seen in recent times is the progressive diminution of health provision, particularly in Pembrokeshire, and there is no confidence, I think, in anybody that I've spoken to that Hywel Dda is really going to be responsive to the needs of local people.

I did manage to get a meeting with the chief executive and the chairman of Hywel Dda only last week, and we had a general canter around the course, and it's quite clear what the direction of travel here is. They want to close general hospitals and have smaller community hubs that are not going to be able to provide the range of services that are currently available. 

Of course the health service has to change with the times and Hywel Dda has particular historical problems to deal with—I'm not totally unsympathetic to the predicament in which they find themselves—but how can it be right to close smaller hospitals or close general hospitals and try to funnel everything into one central bigger unit? We had not so long ago fears that Bronglais was going to close in Aberystwyth. Now we're fearing that Withybush is going to close. Given the geography of the Hywel Dda health board, where population is sparse, you can't centralise things in one place; that's an impossibility.

The other point that came out of my discussions with the chairman and chief executive was that they don't see the need for as many beds in hospitals. I heard you say a moment ago that the health service has changed so that more people are discharged from hospital earlier today than used to be the case, and that is certainly true, but bed occupancy rates are at record highs—you know, 88 per cent, whereas the safe level is 85 per cent. So, it cannot be right in those circumstances to be contemplating reducing the provision of hospital beds still further.

I appreciate you can't say today what the outcome of this review and consultation is going to be, and that there are legal restrictions on your ability to answer questions, but I can follow on from what Joyce Watson said a moment ago: it must be regarded as a ridiculous proposal to close Withybush—even in contemplation in the medium term, let alone the short term. The health board should, when it produces the list of options for people to discuss, avoid causing unnecessary alarm and consternation by producing extreme proposals that are not going to be followed through.

But, fundamentally, what we are seeing here is the lack of democratic decision taking in the health service. Health boards are not elected, community health councils are not elected. Everything, ultimately, is funnelled up to the health Secretary in the Assembly, and yes, we can attempt to hold the health Secretary to account in this Chamber, but our capacity to do that is, of course, limited by the structure of the Assembly and the party system within it. People on the ground feel that they have no real voice at all. Yes, ours is a voice, but is our voice being heard, and even if it's heard, is it going to be listened to?