In the recent BBC Wales Investigates interview, I clearly described why our priority must be to respond to the pandemic in a structured and measured way. This involves developing approaches to support patients most in need of planned treatment, and I also indicated that we are already looking at broader steps to plan for the future. We do have an agreed way forward at health board level to treat COVID-19 and maintain essential services such as cancer, which is certainly not the forgotten 'c' during this pandemic. Those expectations are set out in the quarterly planning framework that we discussed again in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee today. There's detailed guidance within that on cancer and other related services, such as endoscopy. So, health boards have plans in place in response to this, and we continue to work closely with them as we understand and monitor delivery. 

The pandemic has, though, had a heartbreaking impact on services that care for people with cancer and other life-affecting treatments, and our chief medical officer has been very clear that there are several ways that the pandemic will cause harm, both directly and indirectly. And I should at this point note Hefin David's comments about his constituent, Dawn Wilson. I met Dawn before endorsing and supporting the Know Your Lemons campaign, and I recognise the impact that she had, and it was an entirely selfless act on her part to take up the end of her life to campaign for others. A key message in our forthcoming national communication will be to continue to highlight and to reinforce the need for patients to contact our NHS with any signs or symptoms of cancer. This will continue in the new campaign, Help us, Help You. We're working with a range of partners, such as the Football Association of Wales and the Wales Rugby Union to support our messages, with focus videos, including some from football figures and real NHS staff. 

Health boards are having to deal with an unprecedented situation, and there are no simple operational or ethical answers to this. Everything that can be done is being done. Everything that can be provided is being provided. And we're still learning and needing to adapt as our evidence base changes, as our knowledge changes. So, the Government does remain focused on addressing this important area. My officials continue to work with clinicians on identifying options for how additional moneys recently announced by the UK Government can help us to address the significant challenges that delayed treatment will present, not just for the next few months, but for an entire Welsh Parliament term. Our priority will be to reduce risk from delay and to support clinical prioritisation. As the chief executive of NHS Wales highlighted last week, additional safety measures are necessary to protect patients and staff, and they remain a priority as the number of patients presenting with COVID remains high in all of our healthcare settings in primary and secondary care. This affects both the type and the volume of services available to treat other patients. So, we continue to explore ways to maximise the flow of patients in and out of treatment. That includes reviewing safe discharge arrangements and how best to use our hospital and primary care estate, including field hospitals.

I want to deal with the option of green hospitals, or, as the motion says—a different phrase—COVID-free hospitals. It sounds an attractive idea, but it's not easy to do, and I agree with Dai Lloyd that I don't think it's actually a practical answer. For example, we need to know what impact this would have on local access to emergency services, including minor injury services, travel times and strain on ambulance resources during winter. The so-called COVID-free hospitals that the Tories advocate—. And if they're serious about doing so, we need to be clear about what that means: so, which hospital in north Wales would no longer have an A&E department? Would Withybush or Glangwili no longer have A&E or minor injuries, or emergency surgery, and how would maternity access be organised? Because, in all of these areas, they're not compatible with a COVID-free hospital. I'm afraid that the slogan of 'COVID free' isn't actually a serious and practical answer for NHS Wales now, and, actually, the Royal College of Surgeons in Wales have made clear that they're interested in COVID-lite zones within our estate as a practical answer, as Richard Johnson recently set out. And I should make it clear of course that, in terms of Dr Lloyd's comments about contact tracing, TTP in Wales is public and is delivering to a high standard.

Our field hospitals have a role to play in supporting capacity and flow, but it's not possible to deliver elective pathways in a field hospital. And I think remarks on this area from Janet Finch-Saunders didn't perhaps take in and fully understand the role that they can play and will play in this phase of the pandemic. For example, many treatments require post-surgical care and additional back-up facilities, including intensive care. Operating theatres are, of course, not available in field hospital environments.

The NHS has responded magnificently to this major and unprecedented public health emergency. Our staff have shown tremendous adaptability to deliver services, to both COVID and non-COVID patients. And I believe that our NHS staff and their colleagues across the public sector deserve a proper pay rise to reflect this. That means teachers, teaching assistants, cleaners, cooks, environmental health officers, and their colleagues across local government, the police, and the armed forces, who have helped so much in our COVID response here in Wales and across the UK. All of these public servants, and their colleagues, deserve so much better than the kick in the teeth they got today from the Chancellor. We here in Wales will continue to work with and to value our NHS and their partners, as we continue to face the unprecedented challenges of this pandemic, in the months ahead, and in the years ahead, and the recovery that will take place once the pandemic is finally over.