Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to allow patients to have access to NHS doctors willing to prescribe cannabis-based medicine in cases where their NHS doctor is unwilling to do so.

NHS England expects that cannabis-based products for medicinal use should only be prescribed for indications where there is clear evidence of benefit, and in patients where there is a clinical need which cannot be met by a licensed medicine and, where established treatment options have been exhausted.

The decision to prescribe these unlicensed medicines must be made by a specialist doctor – not a general practitioner. These doctors focus on one field of medicine such as neurology or paediatrics and are listed on the General Medical Council’s specialist register. They must make decisions on prescribing cannabis-based products for medicinal use on a case by case basis, and only when the patient has an unmet special clinical need that cannot be met by licensed products. In addition, a specialist on the General Medical Council Register should only prescribe within their own area of practice, and the decision to prescribe should be agreed by the multidisciplinary team.

NHS England, the British Paediatric Neurology Association and the Royal College of Physicians will provide clinical advice to doctors ahead of the law change. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has been commissioned to develop more detailed guidelines for clinicians in the longer term.