I would like to put on record also my thanks, on behalf of the constituents also of Aberconwy—our thanks and our appreciation for the vital contribution of our air ambulance service. Now, the Welsh Air Ambulance Charitable Trust, and every single team member, provide an essential life-saving emergency medical service for the critically ill and injured across Wales. Only in the last 12 months, there’ve been several occasions where the air ambulance has landed on a local playing field, on a busy main road here, and various other places that I didn’t even realise a helicopter was capable of landing, but such was the need for their help and that rescue. That their team is capable of reaching a critically ill patient anywhere in Wales within 20 minutes of receiving a call is testament to their selfless dedication. With the advanced standard of care that the crews deliver at the scene of an incident, and the rapid transfer of patients to specialised medical care across Wales, including throughout the night, it can perhaps be all too easy to forget that this is a charitable organisation reliant on the support of the public, and it’s my understanding that this is how they’ve always wanted it to be. They’ve wanted to be that independent rescue service. However, every year they need to raise £8 million to keep the helicopters in the air and rapid response vehicles on the ground. Now, I had the privilege of seeing first hand and discussing the fantastic work of the air ambulance team when I visited their north Wales operating base recently—well, a few weeks ago, before Christmas—with my colleague Sam Rowlands. We both were very impressed with the setup at Dinas Dinlle, and it was extremely efficient and very effective. However, I completely agree with everything that Russell George has said. In the depths of a winter crisis in our NHS, with strikes still continuing unresolved, this does now seem to me to be the worst possible time to even think about closing down air ambulance operating bases.

Unanswered questions still remain on the impact this would have on any constituents affected, certainly my constituents and residents across the whole of north Wales. We also need to know the amount of time it takes for the air ambulance to fly from, say, Dinas Dinlle and Rhuddlan to different points in Aberconwy, so that we can actually compare what the effects will be. As I said, I will always be very grateful for the service the air ambulance provides, but we really do need more data—and your Government could provide this, Minister, or the organisation—so that we can carefully establish what impact the proposals are going to have on those constituencies and the patients who will be affected by any closures.

As many others have said, closing Welshpool and Caernarfon could not only put patients at risk, but it could have knock-on consequences for other areas. Wales is already facing increased ambulance waiting times. In north Wales, appallingly, last September alone we had 35 red calls for life-threatening emergencies that took over an hour to be reached—with two of those taking half an hour to be reached and two of those taking over an hour. We've already seen the impact of these chronic pressures in my constituency and the north Wales region, with critical care incidents being declared by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board due to the overwhelming volume of patients needing care.

Aberconwy, of course, is a constituency with a large rural and older population, and we have many areas that have poor roads and phone reception, and they can be more difficult for regular ambulances to reach in time. So, this alone underlines the crucial importance of having a wide-ranging air ambulance service, with good geographic coverage across all areas of Wales. The problems in our ambulance service are already acute enough without risking adding to the pressures. The centralisation plan, in my opinion, leaves too many unanswered questions for me and, indeed, for my constituents, and, again, I endorse the 20,000 who have already signed a petition against these closures. I guarantee that those numbers will increase dramatically. We risk worsening demands on our ambulance services at the worst possible time. I would therefore ask all colleagues in the Senedd to support our motion—no other amendments, just support our motion—and let's ensure that we show our support to our air ambulance service. Diolch.