This is clearly a difficult issue, confronting the mechanics of change. The case made by the Hywel Dda health board is for the sustainability of services, not now, but in 10 years' time, and we already see that our hospital services are struggling under the extra demand and the implications of an ageing population today. There are already shortages, on many weekends, of out-of-hours care in the units associated with the hospitals alone, let alone the pressure on the wards, where the average age of a patient in Prince Philip is 82 years of age.

Clearly, these changes in society need to be reflected in the way that we run and organise hospitals. I think there's a broad agreement on that. The difficulty comes from the politics and engaging with the public and the patient on the implications of that for our local hospitals. That, clearly, is not easy, and I have been critical of the way that Hywel Dda engaged in that in trying to control the debate, not engaging in public meetings, putting out an almost impenetrable public consultation document. So, it is imperfect, the way that they have run the consultation, but the fact that change needs to be confronted, I think, is without argument. But, of course, we want to see change for the better.

I am pleased with the announcement this morning that option A has been taken off the table. I do not think that with a population the size of Llanelli, given the role that Prince Philip plays within the Hywel Dda ecosystem of hospitals as a training centre, it would have been in the best interests of the health board, or in the interests of the people of Carmarthenshire, for that to be downgraded to a community hospital. And, I'm pleased that the health board has listened and engaged patiently with the arguments that were put, not just by me and by Nia Griffith, my colleague, the MP, but also by the responses to the consultation, where their own staff said, in response to the consultation, that option A was not acceptable, and that option B was a better solution. So, to that extent, I am relieved that the outcome has been as it has. As David Rowlands said at the beginning, there's a petition from the SOSPPAN campaign, the save our services campaign, pending before the Petitions Committee—a 13,000-strong petition that has yet to be heard.

Looking at the result of the decision this morning by the health board, there are a number of things that they have agreed to in response to the consultation that I think are encouraging, but we need to watch carefully. One is recommendation 7, which is the development of a detailed plan to address the significant concern heard about access. In particular, they are going to work with the Wales ambulance service to look at patient transport—looking at new models for getting people around. This, to me, is the Achilles heel of the change. When 25 per cent of people do not have access to a car, and those who do have access to a car are an hour away from a hospital—. Constituents of mine will be closer to Morriston; they'll be closer to the Prince of Wales; they'll be as close to the Heath as they will to the hospital in Whitland. So, clearly, the access is going to be the key for making any changes work.

The other recommendation, 8, is the use of technology, which I think was profoundly underdeveloped in the proposals put out by Hywel Dda. I heard on the webcast this morning Dr Alan Williams, who is the cluster lead for Llanelli, say that their plan to maximise the use of technology, which was illustrated in the slides by an iPhone—. He said that the reality in the NHS today is not that this will be involving an iPhone; the reality is that this is going to be involving a fax machine. We've discussed in this Chamber before the reality of the state of digital in the NHS today. Given the pace of change that the NHS Wales Informatics Service has been able to deliver to date, even though this is 10 years ahead, there has got to be some doubt about whether or not they are going to be able to deliver it as currently structured and resourced. So, clearly, that has to be put right, because the potential for cutting down the need to travel in the first place by using digital, so that people can access services without needing to go to a hospital, is huge and is not being capitalised, either by the Hywel Dda plans or by the NHS in Wales more generally.

There are still some causes for concern in the response from the point of view of my constituents, and levels of trust are low. They say there will still be comprehensive—. Even though acute services will remain in Prince Philip, there will be comprehensive reviews required in this planning of the service change to ensure that acute medicine is going to be available in all hospitals. So, having said on the one hand that acute medicine will be preserved in Prince Philip, there is that slightly sinister warning that there could yet be battles ahead, and I will certainly be keeping a close eye on it. Diolch.