Patient Access.
How can we best develop expertise in medicinal cannabis?
Knowledge is power.
For medicinal cannabis to be recommended by a hospital consultant by way of the Individual Funding Request process or otherwise, the Health Department will require personnel to be suitably educated on the subject.
Recommendation:
- To facilitate the provision of medicinal cannabis by the Health Department, healthcare staff and GPs should be provided with professional training.
Is a hospital cannabis clinic the answer?
Together with staff training, processes will be required at the Hospital to support patients, accommodate requests for medicinal cannabis and dispense the medication.
Prior to the introduction of the medicinal cannabis proposition in 2018, Law Drafting Instructions had been issued to reclassify Bedrocan and Tilray products under the Misuse of Drugs Law.
In related questioning of the (previous) Health Minister in the States Assembly, it was stated that the change in the law would "enable the products to be prescribed by a hospital specialist and supplied from the hospital pharmacy. Any such supply from the hospital pharmacy against a hospital prescription would be free of charge."
It is therefore apparent that consideration has previously been given to the dispensation of medicinal cannabis via the hospital.
By instituting a specialist hospital cannabis clinic, the Health Department would be able to develop expertise in medicinal cannabis and in so doing could become an exemplar for this field of medicine.
Recommendation:
- In order to best accommodate the long-term provision of medicinal cannabis within the Health Department, we suggest the establishment of a hospital cannabis clinic or equivalent that would issue prescriptions free of charge via the Hospital Formulary upon the recommendation of consultants.
Creating a centre of excellence.
The recent EIA Scrutiny Report on the Regulations for the licensing, production and export of Medicinal Cannabis in Jersey made recommendations relating to both clinical trials and research and development.
Recommendation:
- A hospital cannabis clinic at the new Overdale Campus could facilitate clinical trials and research and development into medicinal cannabis.
Recommendation:
- The Health Department should consider partnerships with medicinal cannabis producers to reduce costs and facilitate R&D.