Medicinal cannabis prescriptions (FOI)

​Request

Since the prescription of medicinal cannabis was legalised, please provide a figure for how many prescriptions of medicinal cannabis products have been issued, breaking this down by which product(s) have been prescribed and for which type of condition (ie pain, epilepsy, effects of chemotherapy, psychological conditions and so on).

Please also provide a breakdown of how many prescriptions have been issued by consultants and how many by GPs since their ability to prescribe was made possible on 1 January this year.

Response

1. Prescribing by GPs

Medicines prescribed in the community by GPs and other registered prescribers at cost to the Health Insurance Fund are subject to a process of consideration by the Pharmaceutical Benefit Advisory Committee (PBAC). Following advice from the PBAC, the Minister for Social Security may approve a medicine to be suitable for prescribing in the community at cost to the Health Insurance Fund. It is then added to the approved list.

No medicinal cannabis products are included on the approved list, therefore no such products have been prescribed in the community at cost to the Health Insurance Fund by GPs.

GPs are able to prescribe privately (without subsidy from the Health Insurance Fund) and the States of Jersey does not hold any information on private prescriptions.

2. Prescribing by consultants

There have been no prescriptions written by consultants for any of the cannabis based medicinal products which became legal on 1 January 2019.