Cannabis: Medical Treatments

(asked on 12th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS funded medicinal cannabis prescriptions.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 18th November 2021

Whether to prescribe any medicine is a clinical decision and the Government has enabled the prescription of cannabis-based products for medicinal use where it is clinically appropriate. The Chief Medical Officer and NHS England have written to doctors and pharmacists to highlight the available guidance on the prescribing and use of unlicensed medicines and to clarify the procedure for prescribing and supplying cannabis-based products for medicinal use. Health Education England has also published an e-learning module on medicinal cannabis.

The licensed cannabis-based medicine Epidyolex is prescribed and routinely funded by the National Health Service for Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has recently approved Epidyolex for a third form of epilepsy and it is now being assessed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for this indication. The licensed medicine Sativex is also routinely funded to treat moderate to severe spasticity in adults with multiple sclerosis. On 6 September, NHS England issued a reminder to clinical commissioning groups of NICE’s guidance relating to Sativex and will be monitoring its uptake.

The latest NICE guidelines demonstrate a clear need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions for unlicensed cannabis-based products on the NHS. The Government continues to support the establishment of clinical trials with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute for Health Research and from 1 April introduced a national patient registry to record patient outcomes. Since January 2020, the Refractory Epilepsy Specialist Clinical Advisory Service has been in place to provide advice and support for doctors to optimise the treatment of refractory epilepsy.

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