Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Every year, the NHS develops a plan for how it's going to manage with the increased demands over the winter, and this year is no exception. The preparations have been taking place already for many months. We are making this statement today in order to give an opportunity for Senedd Members to discuss our plans before the formal publication of the report on Thursday. I think it is important for Members to note that, generally, the winter plan is an instruction to the NHS and is normally an internal document, although we understand the political interest in the plan this year as we see challenges to our health and care services this year, the likes of which we have never seen in the history of the NHS.

We are going into this winter where we still have very high rates of COVID, where we are expecting significant additional pressures from winter flu, and we are trying to keep up the pace on addressing the backlog of treatments that has developed during the pandemic. This will be happening at a time when the NHS and care workers are exhausted, when the flow through our hospitals is restricted because of challenges in terms of discharging patients when they are ready to leave, and an increase in demands on our GP surgeries and massive pressure on our ambulance services.

That's the backdrop to the publication of this winter plan. At the heart of the winter plan is a determination to work together with the NHS, local government and, ideally, the public, in asking us all to play our part to relieve as much pressure on the system as possible. There will be a comprehensive programme to direct the public to the appropriate place for care, which will not always be the GP in primary care or accident and emergency in secondary care. COVID is not over, and a central part of our plan is to ensure that we are vaccinating and continuing our test, trace and protect programme through the winter months. We'll be revising our Adferiad long COVID programme, as promised, to keep up with the latest data and information.