Medical Cannabis (Access) Bill

Debate between Jeff Smith and Margaret Greenwood

Friday 10th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith]

The matter is not being resolved in the current processes, and that is part of the problem. I emphasise that I am not proposing a new permanent body; this would be a bit like a royal commission, although I would want it to be much shorter and more focused. It would be a commission of experts to look at the problem and propose a new framework for assessment of the evidence. That would, I hope, lead to a better process for licensing. I reassure the hon. Gentleman that I am not proposing any new bureaucracy.

The other part of my Bill proposes a register of GPs trained in cannabis-based medicine, who could prescribe cannabis-based medicines for certain conditions.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, and I know both his speech and his Bill are very much welcomed by my constituents, particularly one who suffers from progressive myelopathy. He is in almost constant pain, and I know he would like to thank my hon. Friend for all his work. On the business of creating a register of GPs trained in prescribing medical cannabis, obviously GPs adopt different specialisms according to what they are interested in and so forth, so what mechanisms would we need to deal with a situation where somebody’s GP was not registered when they might nevertheless benefit from a prescription, and how that might be addressed?

[Jeff Smith]

My sympathy to my hon. Friend’s constituent; chronic pain is one of the conditions for which cannabis can be very beneficial, and I hope he can find a way forward. I will talk briefly about GPs. My hon. Friend is right that they specialise, but part of the problem with GP training and medical training in general is that there is very little training on the cannabinoid system, so I would not expect all GPs to come forward. She anticipates my remarks, so I will move on, but the point is that there is sufficient interest from GPs to enable her constituent to find somebody who could help with his condition.

I should perhaps be clear that I am not expecting GPs to initiate a prescription for some of the very rare and specialist conditions, such as some of the epilepsy conditions we have talked about, although for childhood epilepsy GPs are currently allowed to continue a prescription that has been initiated by a specialist. Many other conditions that can be effectively treated by cannabis-based medicines, however, are what we might call GP conditions, and chronic pain would be one of them. Enabling trained GPs to prescribe medical cannabis should improve access for patients with symptoms commonly dealt with by GPs, such as chronic pain, muscle spasms, nausea and anxiety. Currently, patients would have to go to a private specialist doctor to access the medicine for one of those conditions. Although GPs would not be initiating prescriptions for the rare and severe patients, training more GPs could result in better outcomes for people with those conditions, such as intractable epilepsy, because their initial consultation with a GP could be more informed about cannabis as a useful treatment and could result in more effective referrals to consultants who could prescribe the medicine.

I emphasise that inclusion on the register would be on an opt-in basis for GPs. I would not expect all GPs to be required to take on the prescription of cannabis, but a significant number—the polling suggests 24%—would be willing to do so. Under the current law, a GP is not allowed to initiate prescriptions, but I am told that 73% are open-minded about playing more of a role in the prescription of medical cannabis.

Those are the two proposals in the Bill. I will briefly outline a few suggestions that have been put forward to me as alternative ways to allow patients to get the medicine they need. A number relate to the evidence base and some relate to funding, because one problem, of course, is the cost of prescriptions. One way forward could be a fund to temporarily pay the cost of the private prescriptions for patients with certain conditions, such as treatment-resistant childhood epilepsy. I know a number of hon. Members in the Chamber have called for that. I cannot propose that in a private Member’s Bill, because it is a spending commitment, but I hope the Government will consider it as a way forward, particularly for the cohort of patients with childhood epilepsy. It would be a discretionary fund to fund private prescriptions for those who need them in the interim while our collective failure to allow NHS prescribing is sorted out.

I hesitate to say this in an arena where rampant Euroscepticism has been known to raise its head, but another suggestion is to allow cannabis-based medicines that have been authorised for use by a state within the European economic area to be prescribed by a medical practitioner as if the product in question has been granted a marking authorisation for the purposes of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. I think that would be a good way forward—it is a way partly to get around the problem—although I do not expect everybody in the Chamber to support the idea. As we know, these medicines are safe, effective and licensed in lots of countries, such as Holland, and we need to learn from places that enable patients to get their medicine.

On funding, another way forward might be to allow a slice of the NHS innovative medicines fund to go towards epileptic medical cannabis patients. Campaigners were previously told that that could be a way forward, but have been told more recently that it is not because the fund is supposed to be only for cancer medicines. That appears to be an arbitrary Government decision and there appears to be no reason why some of that funding could not be allocated to epileptic medical cannabis patients.

On evidence, we could set up a Government office for medical cannabis. The hon. Member for Gedling (Tom Randall) might not like another layer of bureaucracy, but other countries, including Australia, acknowledge the need to treat this medicine differently. They think outside the box and look at all the available evidence and evaluate it robustly. We could mandate the Government to commission more trials or mandate the commencement of an observation trial that involves all children with treatment-resistant epilepsy, as a way to make sure that they get immediate access and to ease their prescription-cost burden. The Secretary of State already has the powers to do that and could set up an observational trial that involves all children with treatment-resistant epilepsy to fund their treatment. As I say, we could establish a patient-reported-outcome-measure study, a managed-access programme—as happened with Orkambi, the cystic fibrosis medicine—or a compassionate-access scheme like the one that currently operates in Northern Ireland and is open to a wider cohort than just children with epilepsy.

There are, then, a number of ways in which the Government could help in the short term and in the longer term. The Bill proposes just two modest measures that might make a difference in due course. If the Government are not prepared to accept the proposals in the Bill, what is their solution? People are in pain and unable to access through the NHS the medicines that in some cases are keeping them alive. We cannot allow this situation to go on because we collectively fail to overcome the barriers. It has gone on for too long and we need to address it.

I suspect some colleagues will speak sympathetically but say that this Bill is not the solution; if they do, I hope they will set out what they think is the way forward and the solution. I am happy to support them if they do, because I just want to find a way forward. My Bill proposes two good ways forward, particularly for the families of children with childhood epilepsy—whose lives sometimes depend on getting these medicines—but also for the many people who benefit from cannabis-based medicines and are denied them by a combination of bureaucracy and inertia. If people are not happy with my Bill and are not prepared to support it, the question must be: if not this, what?