Can I first of all start off by congratulating David Rowlands on an excellent speech to open this very important debate, which summarises the situation very well indeed, and also the powerful campaign that we know has been run by the Baldwin family now for a long time because we do need change?

Now, I don't know if I've mentioned before that I've been a GP in Swansea for the last 34 years, but if I haven't, I put it out there again, and obviously type 1 diabetes, especially in very young children in their diabetic ketoacidosis phase, is really a terrifying disease that I get confronted with about once every seven years on average. You've just got to think about it as a GP and just check the blood sugar with a pinprick there, because the classic 4 Ts are not always there in a very young child, in the toddler and in the baby. The situation there is that a child can just present with a chest infection when the rest of the family have got a chest infection; the child can just present with diarrhoea and vomiting when the rest of the family have diarrhoea and vomiting. What makes you check the pinprick blood sugar? Well, there's an innate sort of gut feeling and stuff. So, yes, in older children, you have the 4 Ts: the children have been drinking gallons, they have been passing urine by the gallon, they have lost weight, they are ill and tired and feel dreadful. Those are the sorts of symptoms that we need to highlight and get out there, as David has very eloquently stated, in terms of awareness raising.

But in terms of the GP and the primary care response to this, we have to have pinprick glucometers on our desks, and in our medical bags when we do house calls. Because when there's an ill child, we check the blood sugar—it should be there automatically. Thinking ill child—and particularly a child who is more ill than I would think it should be with the diarrhoea and vomiting—check the blood sugar. Yes, about once every seven years, it's going to turn out to be diabetic ketoacidosis, rather than the ordinary gastroenteritis. But, as we hear, the tragic conclusions and legacy of not making that diagnosis lives with families, and the professionals concerned, forever more.

So, the main thrust is to run with the recommendations from an excellent report by the Petitions Committee. Frankly, in terms of pinpricks, and we're talking resources for primary care—the Cabinet Secretary will always know that I'm banging on about the shift of the resources to primary care—this should be happening anywhere. So, I'm not going to be particularly harsh on the Cabinet Secretary this afternoon. We should be having the pinprick glucometers, the glucose testing in practice anyway. Every GP should do that as a measure of professional excellence. And we owe it to our patients, because sometimes the clinical picture is not clear-cut—you just have an ill child. And I would recommend to my GP colleagues: an ill child, you can't work out what's going on—check the blood sugar.

Support the motion. Diolch yn fawr.