I guess we're all familiar with the usual winter pressures that come with the flu season, and the general strain on health during the winter, and the impact that has on our GP surgeries and our hospitals. This time around, of course, with COVID and the backlog of treatments that have built up, those pressures are likely to be even greater than usual. 

For me, as a representative of Newport East at the moment, Dirprwy Lywydd, what I'm getting in my postbag is a lot of concern about access to GP services, around basics like the telephone system and being able to access those face-to-face appointments when appropriate. Some of the problems obviously predated the pandemic, but they've certainly got worse, and I think the community health council, for example, have evidenced that in their work.

It's a basic problem, really, of people ringing continually and not being able to get through on the telephone within the designated period during which they can book an appointment that day. When they get through, it's too late to book an appointment that day and they're told to ring tomorrow, and then they go through the same experience again and, obviously, despair of ever getting the face-to-face appointment that they want. Of course, I do think that leads to extra pressure on A&E unscheduled care at the hospitals, because some people will then go to the A&E when they shouldn't. There are further problems there in terms of discharging from the hospitals around available staff for homecare and care homes. 

There's such a cocktail of problems at the moment, which, to some extent, existed before the pandemic, but it has certainly worsened as a result of COVID-19. I'm wondering, really, what the Minister can say today in terms of Welsh Government action on this. To what extent is there an assessment of these problems, working with the local health boards, to understand which GP services are having particular problems, for example, with their telephone systems, what upgrading is taking place of those telephone systems to deal with the problems, which GP surgeries are having particular problems with providing the necessary flexibility around face-to-face appointments, and what is being done to address that? And how is the Welsh Government working with the community health council to understand the evidence and the experience that people are having? 

There is a need for flexibility, Dirprwy Lywydd, I know. Some people actually want to use the new technologies to access services, but there are some that want those face-to-face services, and, when they're appropriate, obviously they need to be delivered. So, I would be grateful for some responses from the Welsh Government to those particular issues.