5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the future delivery of acute and emergency services in the Hywel Dda University Health Board area? OQ57692

Llywydd, the health board has developed a plan for the future of services in the Hywel Dda area over the next 20 years. That strategy was developed with clinicians, patients and through consultation with the wider public. A programme business case was recently submitted to the Welsh Government for scrutiny.

Thank you for that response, First Minister. As you mentioned, the business case has been submitted to you now as a Government, and as part of those proposals the health board intends to repurpose or rebuild Withybush hospital, which would see it lose its accident and emergency services. First Minister, these proposals have caused a great deal of upset and anger amongst the people that I represent, who yet again are campaigning to protect services at their local hospital. Indeed, Cefin Campbell, the Member for Mid and West Wales, and I attended a rally last week with some of those campaigners. Now, as you know, the golden hour is critical in saving people's lives, and so it's absolutely crucial that Withybush hospital retains its emergency services. Therefore, given the commitment that the Welsh Government has made to emergency services at Withybush hospital in the past by investing some £9 million in the A&E department, will you now work with me and indeed others to ensure that these services stay at the hospital in the future?

Llywydd, there are no plans to remove any services from Withybush, including its A&E provision, prior to any wider changes that there may be made in health services in that part of Wales. I urge anybody who has an interest in the future of those services to engage directly with the health board, with its clinicians who are responsible for the development of plans that will put health services in that part of Wales on a sustainable footing for the next 20 years. Opportunities have come and gone in south-west Wales because people's attachment to the status quo prevented them from being willing to move forward with plans that would have resulted in major investment in those services. I do hope—. While understanding the attachment that people have to the services that they know and have used and are used to, I do hope that the opportunities that there may be there for that investment, in that 20-year future for south-west Wales, are not set to one side by people who allow their fears of the future to get in the way of the engagement—the positive engagement, the constructive engagement—that I think they would wish to see and that the health board intends to offer them.

Thank you, First Minister.