Unquote. At least this helpful intervention shows that the need to protect services at Withybush hospital is not a party political issue, and that, even in the Labour Party, there are some that understand and agree with the voice of local people. Despite this, the health board is determined to push ahead with plans that would directly put lives at risk by forcing people to travel further afield for emergency treatment. We in Pembrokeshire accept that we have to travel further afield for specialist treatment, but forcing us to travel further afield for lifesaving treatment and emergency services is totally unacceptable and dangerous. I use the word 'dangerous' because, from time to time, we see the A40 closed and getting further eastwards in an emergency situation when the road is closed is nigh on impossible. And what have the Welsh Government said on this issue? Very little, to be perfectly honest.

The Minister has been right to point out that he may have to take a decision in the process and so has stepped back from giving a view on the proposals. But the First Minister was more than happy yesterday to give his view that no changes should take place to maternity services. Nevertheless, to refuse to confirm whether or not the money will be made available for the health board's plans to build a brand-new hospital somewhere between Narberth and St Clears is simply extraordinary. Either the money is there or it isn't, and let me remind Members that it would probably cost at least £500 million to build a brand-new, state-of-the-art hospital.

Given that the health board is under targeted intervention status, the Welsh Government cannot simply wash its hands of it and remain silent on the affordability of its plans. In the meantime, the people of Pembrokeshire are completely in the dark about how services will be delivered in the future. Is it any wonder that communities in west Wales feel so let down and neglected by their local health board and the Welsh Government? Sadly, the local health board have a terrible track record when it comes to cutting services and leaving the public without new facilities. Even now, it has yet to give any concrete assurances over the future of some of Withybush's most essential services. Now, in August 2014, when the special care baby unit was closed, we were promised the delivery of a new, state-of-the-art facility at Glangwili hospital. Over four and a half years on, they still have not built this new facility. We are still waiting for these new services. So, where do we go from here?

The health board and the Welsh Government are keen to point out the problems that Withybush hospital has had in recruiting staff, saying that reform must happen to confront these challenges. However, to my mind, the constant removal of key services from Withybush hospital in recent years, coupled with downgrading other services, has done nothing to attract junior doctors or other medical professionals to Pembrokeshire. Clinicians will feel disinclined to consider roles at a hospital that has been earmarked for downgrading, and this creates an even bigger wave of unsustainability over current services. We already know that the health board is struggling to fill posts in other areas, and I sincerely believe that the years of uncertainty and the erosion of services locally in Pembrokeshire has certainly not helped the situation. The health Minister himself has said that—and I quote:

'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.'

Unquote. And I completely agree. That's why further investment is not just needed in Pembrokeshire in relation to its primary and community-based services, but in its hospital services too. To allow any further reduction of services at the hospital and to support the removal of A&E services from Withybush hospital would simply work against that ambition. Indeed, any decisions that result in patients travelling further for treatment is a direct contradiction to the Minister's previous remarks that we want people to receive as much care as possible as locally as possible. Therefore, in responding to this debate, at the very least can the Minister confirm that, to meet the Government's intention to deliver services locally, it will ensure that A&E services will not be removed from Withybush hospital? 

Dirprwy Lywydd, in recent years all but one thing has remained, and that's the local health board's inability to listen to the people of Pembrokeshire and meaningfully engage with them on the future of services at their local hospital. Members may point to the consultation on the transforming clinical services programme, but each one of the options offered to patients in Pembrokeshire resulted in services being downgraded at Withybush hospital. There was no option that would transform services for the better at Withybush hospital; in fact, it just demonstrated the health board's ongoing efforts to centralise services further away from communities in Pembrokeshire. 

As a result, the views of the people of Pembrokeshire were, once again, thrown to one side and ignored. At the crux of this issue is a health board that refuses to take on board local people's views and, as such, the patient's voice has been lost. That's why it's more important than ever that politicians of all colours and at all tiers of Government do all that they can to ensure the views of people are heard loud and clear. 

Therefore, in closing, Deputy Presiding Officer, I reiterate the title of today's debate: 'Fighting for Future Services'. We are fighting to protect vital services at Withybush hospital, fighting to ensure Pembrokeshire has a health service fit for the twenty-first century, and fighting to protect the patient's voice. Hywel Dda University Health Board has proven yet again that it is incapable of working with the people it serves. Therefore, it is time for the Welsh Government to intervene and to take control. Leadership is now needed, and I once again appeal to the Minister to step in and save those vital services at Withybush before it's too late. It seems that the First Minister can step in and make it clear that there will be no changes to current maternity services, so it goes without saying that the Welsh Government can now step in and save these other vital services, including A&E as well. Pembrokeshire needs and deserves a first-class health service fit for the future, and only by working with local communities, not against them, will that service be delivered.