To turn to NHS capacity, the response that we need to make, as recognised by the new national plan for health and social care, is a whole-system response. And that recognition is entirely missing from the Conservative motion. It's worth remembering that, here in Wales, we already treat the health and social care services together, and that 'A Healthier Wales'—the Welsh Government's long-term plan—will accelerate progress in that area, backed by the £100 million transformation fund.

By contrast, England has pretty much ignored social care, which has meant that, when pressure is increased, the strain is heaped on the NHS there, with no capacity to get people out of hospital. And while the Tories continue to criticise Wales's successful ambulance response model, and say that we are moving the goalposts to achieve better target outcomes, it's interesting to note that both England and Scotland are now replicating it.

But a whole-system response will go beyond out-of-hours, critical care and ambulance services, as is mentioned in this motion. It also needs to focus on the role of social care and on strengthening primary care. And in Wales, thanks to Welsh Labour, we have a planned health and care system that allows for that type of response. We know that in successive budget rounds, this Welsh Government has provided money to help with the integration of these vital services, and, thankfully, our services have not been broken into bite-size chunks, ready for privatisation. So we have the potential to make further improvements.

As a member of the health committee, I've read with interest the work of bodies like the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. In a report on their UK-wide winter flow project, they've highlighted the fact that we do need to focus on the care needs of patients who've been medically optimised and are fit for discharge back into the community. The royal college describes this as the exit block that we can open through further strengthening our social care packages. While we've made some progress with this in Wales, clearly there's a lot more that can be done, and of course we all know that being able to move patients out of hospitals as quickly as possible also improves patient outcomes. 

From evidence that we've heard in the health committee across a range of issues, I believe we also need to continue to address the variations in practice and performance between health boards. I think, Angela, that was the point that you were making, because I do find it simply unfathomable that when a health board establishes a successful work practice, for example, the Cwm Taf discharge from ambulances at the front door of the hospital, why that isn't quickly replicated elsewhere. Likewise, I think the systems of triage need to be backed more robustly. For example, if someone is in accident and emergency and that's not the service that they require, we should enable hard-pressed NHS staff to more firmly signpost them out of that part of the service.

I understand that the royal college is asking for an increase in bed capacity, and that's for the Government to consider as part of the new national strategy, but the royal college also focused their advice on optimising patient flow, on reactive steps to help capacity, on engaging and empowering the wider system, and on a workforce strategy. So, whilst the motion is useful, it is in my view too narrowly focused, which is why the amendment, I believe, presents a better picture of the response that we can make in Wales to meet the demands of our health and care services, and why I will be supporting the Government amendment and voting against the original motion.