I was delighted to hear the Cabinet Secretary say that inaction is not an option, and I absolutely agree with that, because there’s rising demand for primary care particularly, and clear evidence that there is a bit of strain in the system, with a significant number of GPs handing in the keys, but also rising public expectations that health services should operate just like any other service that people want to have immediate access to. But I think that there is a need for a shift in the relationship between the citizen and the service to ensure that it is a real partnership, which—. It isn’t about a demand service. It’s not like going into a shop and saying, ‘I want this’; it is a partnership.

Often, people on the Conservative benches—. I have in the past heard them say that this is all because the Welsh NHS is underfunded, but the facts contradict that. The public expenditure statistical analysis for 2015-16, published by the UK Treasury, shows spending on health and social care per person in Wales is 6 per cent higher than in England, and spending on health alone in Wales is 1 per cent higher than in England—so, that’s £21 more per person. So, it is not about money. It is about the way we organise the services, and, in my view, it is important to see a shift in resources away from secondary care, which we constantly talk about, to primary care, which is where 90 per cent of all NHS services are delivered.

It’s good to see there’s a lot of agreement on the direction of travel. Last week, I chaired a meeting about the shape and services that need to go into a new health centre in Llanedeyrn. The building is clearly in need of replacement, as the cladding is falling off the walls and it has a disastrous energy rating. But some of the points that citizens made were really clear about what people ought to expect, as well as some of the things that we need to do in collaboration with citizens.

I think that one of the reasons that GPs are under such stress is because the access to your GP is, if you like, the last open-door service. Many other public services have shrunk, and the GP is the last place you are entitled to go. Often people are going for entirely the wrong reasons to see a GP about something they could be seeing other people for, whether that’s a simple remedy for a minor health problem that could easily be responded to over the telephone, or whether it’s through the pharmacist, who is obviously available during shop hours. We have to see the GP as, if you like, the co-ordinator of primary care, and ensure that they’re using the other members of the multidisciplinary team in a way that will enable them to free up their time and ensure that, for example, working people can actually get a standard appointment with their GP without actually having to take time off work.

I was struck by the—. The Socialist Health Association have written a paper recently suggesting we should trial different models of GP services—on the one hand, independent contractors, on the other hand, salaried GPs. I’d be interested to hear what the Cabinet Secretary has in mind for possibly looking at different models of primary care where things are breaking down.

I think co-production is essential, because it’s completely pointless offering a liver transplant to an alcoholic unless they’ve got their addiction under control. I think one of the greatest roles for government is ensuring that citizens are enabled to get food that is not going to poison them, and contribute to their health. Over the weekend, I was reading a book called ‘How Not to Die’ by Michael Greger, and the chapter on Parkinson’s, something that a friend of mine has, makes you realise that it’s all too late for those of us who’ve already been consuming these toxic substances in our diet. But it is our job as legislators to ensure that the poisons that eventually end up in the sea are not going to contaminate the next generation. Our diet is the No. 1 cause of premature death and disability, he asserts, and that brings me to, obviously, the very important issue of ensuring that we’re tackling health inequalities. It’s completely shocking that less than 3 per cent of all children bicycle to school, which would seem to me a basic right of all children, whereas over a third are taken to school by car, which means they are completely disempowered, unable to choose who they go to school with, what time they go to school, and they’re just dependent on an adult to take them anywhere.