Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prescriptions for unlicensed cannabis-based medicines the NHS issued in 2020.
There have been 1,700 items for Sativex prescribed on an NHS prescription, dispensed in the community in England and submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority for reimbursement for the period November 2019 to August 2020, the latest data available. The following table shows the number of items by month.
Month | Items |
November 2019 | 172 |
December 2019 | 177 |
January 2020 | 175 |
February 2020 | 160 |
March 2020 | 177 |
April 2020 | 187 |
May 2020 | 154 |
June 2020 | 167 |
July 2020 | 178 |
August 2020 | 153 |
The NHS Business Service Authority is unable to provide the number of National Health Service prescription items for unlicensed cannabis-based products dispensed in the community in England. This information is being withheld in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, due to the number of items attributed to less than five patients and potential for patient identifiable information to be published.