I think you should listen to your colleague Nick Ramsay, because across Gwent there was agreement, on a cross-party basis again, cross-community, on a new plan to deliver health and care. That was agreed before the Government said there was definitely x sum of money to deliver a new hospital at the heart of it. I think I was the fourth or fifth health Minister to be confronted with that choice, and I made a decision. I'm keen that we make choices to keep our system reforming and confronting the challenges we face today and the challenges of the future. So, I see no challenge at all in not making a comment on the detailed choices now, but I also give the assurance that, of course, for any Government initiative—it might be me, it might be somebody else who is asked to make a choice on any capital expenditure and support for the final delivery of that plan. Because change will happen across health and care. We either let that change happen in a chaotic, crisis-led manner or we empower our NHS, our staff and the public to take ownership of the future. Because there is no easy way to have a conversation about transforming our NHS. There'll always be a view—and an honest view, I accept—about why a change, in particular on a local or individual level, should not happen in any and every part of the country where change is proposed.

Our long-term plan for the future of health and social care in Wales, 'A Healthier Wales', describes how we will implement the review's recommendation. It sets a vision for the future and explains how we should adapt to meet future challenges to transform the way that we deliver health and social care. That means evolving traditional ways of working to provide a more proactive approach. That should get patients young, old or frail, and everyone in-between and around the services they need, when they need it.

There will of course be occasions when changes are proposed to hospital-based services, and I know this is about much more than buildings. People have powerful emotional attachments to the venues in which healthcare is delivered, but it is about investing in communities, attracting doctors, nurses, therapists, scientists, by operating a modern healthcare system to make the best use of digital technology and to keep hospitals for those who really need it. That's why we need to build capacity in primary and community care, to provide more care closer to home, in genuine partnership with social care and the third sector. An excellent example of this is actually in eyecare, which is particularly relevant as this week is National Eye Health Week. The NHS Wales eyecare service enables optometrists to provide local, accessible, high-quality care and to reduce the number of patients being referred into hospitals. I had the pleasure of visiting a high-street practice today.

I'll try to draw my remarks to a close, Deputy Presiding Officer. To meet the challenges confronting Hywel Dda, the health board began engaging with the public on a transforming clinical services programme last year. The consultation received over 5,000 questionnaire responses, 275 submissions, and had over 160 face-to-face events. Five petitions were received, including the one of today's debate. But following that process, the health board has been through another process of reconsideration. The full range of views and implications have been assessed with other options put forward, and that outcome has been put forward to the health board today. But, as I said earlier, this is not the end of the process, and in light of the role that I may still have to play, which I outlined earlier, as Members know I cannot and will not comment on the decisions that the health board has made today.