For the past month, people from north Wales have been blocked from accessing the Countess of Chester hospital as out-patient referrals, and that includes, by the way, urgent suspected cancer referrals. You did say earlier that the Minister would probably be making a written statement, I think, quite soon. I was going to ask whether we could have an oral statement so that we as Members could ask some questions, because my understanding is that there would be broader implications not just for patients in north Wales, but for the health service across Wales. I understand that the NHS in England are asking for an 8 per cent increase in charges, and the chief executive of Betsi Cadwaladr health board has made it perfectly clear that if that is the case, then any agreement would have to be replicated across all English providers. Welsh patients currently access services in 50 different health trusts in England. We can all do the maths, and I'm sure that we will all be concerned about those kinds of implications.

But, of course, in the meantime, this stand-off is causing a great deal of distress to patients, who feel as though they're being used as bargaining chips in this dispute. Many are asking how it could have come to this, because we knew that there were issues as early as last year. But similarly as well, of course, when there was a similar issue with Gobowen hospital some years ago, then there was an agreement to go to arbitration. I wouldn't mind hearing from the Minister whether he feels we might be getting to that kind of position in the near future. We need to hear really from the Minister how long he expects this stand-off, if you like, to continue and how long it'll take to resolve the situation, because, in the meantime, do you not agree with me that, at the very least, the Countess of Chester hospital should be accepting patients from Wales and not punishing those patients for the failures of others?