I think you're entirely right, Cabinet Secretary—there should be very little difference between anyone in this Chamber in terms of our aspiration to move towards a position where our health service is entirely digital, where systems work together for the benefit of patients. And yet, in the context of Brexit, people’s willingness to turn the clock back does make one think that some people might prefer to go back to doctors keeping their records on slate, but I hope that it would be a minority who would be of that view.

You’ve taken us through a number of elements of the technology that is being and has been introduced into our health service—the Welsh patient referral service system. It’s very important that we get this right, and the telecommunications platform for Choose Pharmacy is also extremely important. You say that digital technology is transforming the way in which people access healthcare, and certainly it should be. My concern is that we are still failing to make ground in some of the most crucial areas.

We’ve recently had an informal discussion on a digital system that should assist nurses in carrying out their duties on wards, and some delays in the system and in ensuring that that is being rolled out across Wales. In the context of pharmacy, I very often discuss the frustration of pharmacists that there isn’t a read-write system in place that allows real communication between pharmacists and GPs, so that the primary care system truly can work in a united way. There are still too many patients leaving hospital with a piece of paper scrunched up in their pocket that they’re supposed to pass on to their GP once they’ve left hospital, and they lose that paper and the systems break down. One would hope that we could move to far more stable streamlined systems within our health service.

I’d like to focus my questions, however, on one change that’s been announced by the Government within the past few days. This gives us a clear warning on the importance of getting things right in introducing systems that have a strong element of futureproofing, so that we avoid problems further on down the line. I’m talking about the decision, following a procurement process, to change the clinical system that is used by GP surgeries across Wales. A number of surgeries have contacted me, not so much expressing disappointment, but almost in a panic at the decision to take the EMIS Web contract, or rather not to allow EMIS Web to be the system that is used in primary care in future. This system has only been in place for three or four years. There has been substantial investment in introducing this system in surgeries across Wales, and now those surgeries are hearing that the system is to be scrapped, and that a new system will have to be put in place. Eighty-nine of the 118 surgeries that are affected in this case are in north Wales, so there’s a particularly acute issue in the part of Wales where I live. Surgeries have had to invest in hardware and software to work with EMIS Web. They’ve had to have new ECG machines, new blood monitoring machines for patients on warfarin, and other equipment so that they have equipment that interacts with the EMIS system. I will read to you what another surgery told me: