I don't think I'd quite accept the characterisation that these are changes trying to be introduced through the back door. On the three areas that you've talked about—on neurology and orthopaedics, there's big pressure on the numbers going through our system and our ability to meet those. That is partly about the rise in demand—for example, in neurology, in having the right equipment and right people recruited into those services to make them robust, and in orthopaedics, where it isn't just about having a more efficient way of delivering more operations, it's actually about which centres should you have operations taking place in, what do you have done, and then, also, what do you need to do in terms of those people who may not need an operation in the first place. In all of those areas, there is a need to talk to staff and the public about what is potentially there. I know that the draft proposals that have gone to the board are exactly that: they're draft. No final decisions have been made and I do expect there to be full and proper consultation.

On stroke services, though, there's been a long-running conversation and the leading voice with and for patients, the Stroke Association, are very clear that they want the health service in Wales and across the rest of the country to make real progress on hyperacute units—a smaller number of admitting centres with better outcomes for staff. Actually, the clinical lead for stroke services in Wales, based in Bronglais, is really clear that the number of our services where actually people are admitted for stroke needs to change as well to deliver better care. Now, that's a conversation that clinicians need to have and agree, but it's also a conversation they need to have with the public about what they're proposing and why as part of that proper engagement with the public. That is my expectation, not just in north Wales but across the whole service.