Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:28 pm on 22 September 2021.
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I thank Members for their contributions this afternoon? I absolutely understand the strength of feeling in the Chamber in the light of the immense pressures that we're facing in the Welsh ambulance service, but also in the wider NHS and care service at the moment. I'd like to add my thanks for the incredible efforts of those people who are battling away on the front line as they have been doing month after month after month. I hope that everybody in the Chamber will stand with me in thanking them for their incredible efforts over so many months.
I can assure Members that I'm not hiding, I'm not ducking. I am absolutely taking responsibility and I understand that it is my responsibility to drive change in the system at this time of unprecedented pressure. I think it is worth underlining the fact that we have never seen anything like this before. COVID was bad, everybody understood COVID, but everybody in the service at the moment is telling me that this pressure at the moment is worse than anything we've seen hitherto. So, we need to understand the pressure that the system is under at the moment, and it's not something where you can just flick a switch and expect things to change. We've heard everybody this afternoon talk about the way the whole system is integrated, that one part affects the other, and so we're trying to manage all of those systems to understand and to make better those connections, and to make sure that we can see that flow and understand that complicated set of arrangements that exist.