Patients feel misled by pledge of cannabis on NHS
A high-profile government climbdown which legalised a type of cannabis medicine on the NHS five years ago misled patients, campaigners say.
It was thought the law change would mean the unlicensed drug, which treats a range of conditions, could be freely prescribed by specialist doctors.
But fewer than five NHS patients have been given the medicine, leaving others to either pay privately or miss out.
The government says safety needs to be proven before a wider rollout.
Legalisation of whole-cannabis medicine was hailed as a breakthrough for patients - giving either NHS or private specialist doctors the option to prescribe it if they believed their patients would benefit.
But patients are being turned away, say campaigners, because doctors often do not know about the medicine, which is not on NHS trusts' approved lists. Some specialists who do know about it say there is insufficient evidence of the drug's safety and benefits to support prescribing.
Senior paediatric consultant Dr David McCormick, from King's College Hospital in London, says it was "disingenuous" of the government to suggest in 2018 that NHS prescribing was ready to take place.
"Parents were clamouring at our door, or phoning all the time, as they believed we were able to prescribe and that was not the case.
"The message went out, 'doctors can now prescribe cannabis products' and that put us in a difficult position, because in truth we need to apply for that to be approved by NHS England."
Source: BBC News, 13 September 2023