Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. It’s a pleasure to respond to this debate, which has been an excellent debate, and I congratulate David Melding first of all for bringing it all together and for arranging that event a fortnight ago in the Pierhead building, where we met those families who were suffering.

Of course, as a GP with over 35 years’ experience in Swansea, over the years, I’ve met a number of families who have a young person among them suffering arthritis at a very young ages, and it can be a very serious condition, as we’ve heard. And relatively common ailments that are serious in their impact do deserve to be treated in a specialist regional centre, because they are unusual conditions that require different treatments and where all the specialists dealing with those conditions should be located in a central location—a multidisciplinary centre in the true meaning of those words.

All of the medical evidence that has come to hand over the years would support such a development, so that we get the best quality treatment for these rare conditions. We’ve heard the strong arguments in favour of establishing specialist paediatric rheumatology services, and I agree entirely. And the quality of this afternoon’s debate deserves that, too.

I, too, have met a number of specialists working in this area and have spoken to families about the need for these developments—such as Lisa Evans and her daughter Bethan in my region who has this condition—and the need to establish a specialist service in this area.

In turning to the contributions, I congratulate David Melding on outlining in his usual mature manner the points in favour of creating a specialist paediatric rheumatology centre and on telling us the story of Aimee, who was mentioned more than once during the debate. Julie Morgan again gave us the history of another child and the problems that can develop with the eyes and eyesight—it’s not just a matter of joints and bones. And she emphasised the need for early treatment to avoid the impacts of the condition, and arthritis that can have grave effects in the long term, which means that children lose a lot of school as a result.

I congratulate Angela Burns on her contribution, too, outlining the experiences of those who are suffering JIA, and emphasising this element of this need for the multidisciplinary team: physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychotherapists. Likewise, Rhun mentioned the individual experiences of a family and the importance of developing this expertise within Wales. We can do this.

I also thank Caroline Jones, Joyce Watson, Hefin David and Rhianon Passmore for their wise and mature contributions this afternoon. I also thank the Cabinet Secretary. Yes, the background to all of this, as the Cabinet Secretary mentioned, is the Ruth Hussey report, the interim report, which was published yesterday, and there is a significant challenge for the health service there to change.

But there is also a significant challenge for each and every one of us to change. I don’t think that it is sufficient now just to think that something is a good idea and then to refer it to some commission to come up with a final solution in many years’ time; we have to start to take action now. And that’s what the interim report written by Ruth Hussey emphasises: the need to make far-reaching decisions now and to have the courage to implement those.

We’ve heard from the Cabinet Secretary what WHSSC is doing and about the importance of what patients think of the service at the moment. Well, we’ve heard this afternoon what the patients’ view is: they want to see a specialist paediatric rheumatology service now. Wales is the only nation that doesn’t have that specialist service, and I would urge the Cabinet Secretary to come to the same conclusion as everyone else in this Chamber this afternoon.

So, we need these changes now as a matter of urgency, and, of course, that’s what Ruth Hussey’s report anticipates. A change will have to come. Things are moving out of our regional general hospitals and into the community is all very well and good. We’ll do more in the community, we want to do more in the community, and we want to do more in the community, and we deserve the funding to do more in the community, and fewer of the day-to-day issues will be covered in our DGHs, but we still need these specialist tertiary centres to do that stuff that can only be done in those specialist centres. Yes, do more in the community, but we also need more specialist centres here in Wales to serve our people.

We’ve heard the evidence. We’ve heard from a number of people this afternoon. We’ve also had direct evidence from patients and their families and those suffering, and the time for action is now. Thank you.