In last week's cancer conference, health boards were eager to accept the offer of the Wales Cancer Alliance for resources and support for patients waiting on cancer pathways.

More generally, our programme for transforming and modernising care was planned and published in April of this year, and it notes that we will develop and establish a prehabilitation programme to improve outcomes. So, prehabilitation and rehabilitation should be seen as core elements of all care in all pathways. And when one needs any treatment, we must go about it as soon as possible to prepare them for that treatment and to prepare them for what will happen afterwards. We are not delivering the full value of health interventions unless we support people to recover as much as possible, and this means intervening pre and post treatment to secure the best outcomes.

Health and social care organisations are already working on this. We've also launched an amended national rehabilitation framework. It sets out strong and clear principles for prehabilitation and rehabilitation of high quality. Specifically, it seeks to ensure that our health and social care services establish a prehabilitation service that focuses on the ability of the individual to live as independently as possible for as long as possible. The national lead allied health professionals for patient-focused rehabilitation will lead the way on implementing the new framework.

All staff in health and care will be expected to focus positively on rehabilitation and supporting patients. Our allied health professions framework ensures that allied health professionals are available more generally in primary and community care. It also ensures that plenty of prehabilitation and rehabilitation services are provided, and in particular rehabilitation in the community. To make the best use possible of resources and to provide convenient services to patients, I expect services to be integrated and located within the community, and to be focused on the individual rather than the disease.

So, I agree on the need to develop these services, and I do hope that I have conveyed the breadth of the work that is already in the pipeline. Thank you.