Written question – medical cannabis [23/10/2019]

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prescriptions for medical cannabis were issued on the NHS from November 2017 to November 2018. (1919)

Tabled on: 18 October 2019

Answer:
Jo Churchill:

NHS England and Improvement is using extant systems to monitor use of the newly rescheduled unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use in England. In England, these systems monitor the number of items dispensed and associated costs in primary care and the volume of products used and associated cost in secondary care. NHS England’s and NHS Improvement’s Controlled Drug Accountable Officers are also collecting local intelligence in both the NHS and independent sector.

The NHS Business Services Authority is only able to provide information on prescriptions for cannabis-based medicines that have been prescribed and submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority. It does not hold information on prescriptions for cannabis-based medicines which have been issued but not fulfilled.

The following table shows the number of items for Nabilone and Sativex (licensed cannabis-based medicines) and unlicensed cannabis-based medicines that were prescribed on an National Health Service prescription, dispensed in the community and submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority for reimbursement between November 2017 and November 2018.

Month Licensed cannabis-based medicines Unlicensed cannabis-based medicines
Nabilone Sativex
November 2017 44 174 0
December 2017 58 202 0
January 2018 54 171 0
February 2018 44 158 0
March 2018 47 182 0
April 2018 48 145 0
May 2018 45 183 0
June 2018 42 157 0
July 2018 48 170 2
August 2018 54 161 0
September 2018 45 172 1
October 2018 50 164 0
November 2018 46 175 2
Total 625 2,214 5

Unlike NHS primary care where all dispensed prescriptions are processed centrally for payment, this is not the case for secondary care. This information is collected by a third party and not routinely published.

The answer was submitted on 23 Oct 2019 at 18:00.