I'd like to thank the Minister very much for his statement. It is good to see some positive progress being made, and I'm sure we'd all like to congratulate the staff who've worked really hard to deliver this. It's quite demanding what the Minister is expecting of them, and I think we can all be really pleased that there is definitely some positive progress. 

A few specific questions. The statement shows an improvement in waiting times for amber calls as compared from last winter to this winter, but we're not quite comparing like with like, because, in terms of the pressure and in terms of the nature of the weather, we had a very, very cold winter the winter before last, not quite such a cold winter and perhaps not such pressures the winter before. So, I'd like to ask for the Minister's assurance that he will keep this under review, and to make sure that when comparing those performances in terms of responses that he's not comparing oranges with apples, that we are comparing the same thing over a longer period of time. And I'm sure, Presiding Officer, that that would be his intention, and we're only talking about a short space of time here, obviously.

The Minister speaks about the purchase of modern lifting equipment for care homes. I'm really pleased to see so much progress is being made. The Minister says that he understands that there are only four care homes left that don't have that equipment; I'd like some reassurance of the rigour of the nature of that understanding, and whether there are plans—. Are there specific reasons why those four homes haven't been able to take up this opportunity that's been offered? Is it something—? Because, in some buildings, it may be do to do with the nature of the buildings—it may not be physically possible—or are there plans to cover that gap? Because, if there are, I think that would be something that the service and the Welsh Government could be really proud of, to have made that investment—not a huge investment in the scheme of things, but, as the Minister has rightly said, one that can make a huge difference to the outcomes for those particular individual patients. 

I'm very pleased to see what the Minister has said about the number of calls—I think 16,000 calls—that have been able to be resolved from the desk, so that people haven't had to go into hospital services and haven't had to have an ambulance at all. But I'd also like to put that together with the points the Minister's raised about the ambulance service continuing to engage with the public, and the point that he says that the majority of people felt that getting the best response for their condition was more important, even if it wasn't the quickest response. I'd like now to ask the Minister what specific work is being done to monitor how some of those 16,000 patients who didn't get to see an ambulance when perhaps they'd made a call and they'd first made that call thinking an ambulance was what they needed—. Because if that—from what he's telling us today about what has been a positive response overall—is reflected in that group, I think that would be really useful in terms of reassuring the public that when they do get a call back and the outcome of that call is that an ambulance isn't needed—. I think if that's good feedback from that group of patients—and of course it's a lot of patients so they will be talking to neighbours and so on—if they're happy with that bit of their experience, I think that will help with introducing further innovation that will stop people going into hospital, which basically is the last place that anybody wants to be if they can possibly avoid it. 

My final point—I'd like to come back to the issues that Angela Burns raised about stroke. Now, it is of course true that the whole pathway is important, right through to the rehabilitation that people receive, but the Minister will be very well aware that the Stroke Association, who speak, very importantly, for patients and their families, continue to call for a whole episode measure, by which they mean from the point at which the call is made. And I think we should be—. They're being very reasonable, they're not asking for stroke to be put into the red category, they're understanding that it's different. That whole episode—. And they're specifically referring, as the Minister knows, to from the point the call is made to the point that the patient is in the appropriate hospital bed being treated.

The Minister in his statement refers to the programme team continuing to work in partnership, speaks about measures that will be developed, designed, for public reporting—very pleased to hear that. Can he confirm today that in that process he will consider whether one of those measures ought to be the kind of whole-episode approach that the Stroke Association is advocating? I'm not expecting, Presiding Officer, that he can make that commitment today, because that would be to second guess the work that he's put in place, but can I ask if it's possible for him to confirm today the possibility that that whole episode measure is on the table for discussion through the process that he's outlined?