CQC registers UK clinic to prescribe medical cannabis

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has registered Sapphire Medical Clinic to offer medical cannabis in the UK. The clinic is the first in the UK to receive this listing from the regulatory body for this service.

The clinic is able to offer access to patients for medical cannabis for all conditions acknowledged to benefit from it.

Other conventional pharmaceutical drugs and treatments will also be available as part of a comprehensive treatment pathway.

Dr Mikael Sodergren, Managing Director and academic lead at Sapphire Clinics said: “We can now be the lifeline for GPs who are not permitted to prescribe themselves but who think their patients could benefit from medical cannabis. From today those GPs can be sure that their patients are able to be treated in the UK by world-class experts in their conditions, who understand cannabis as a medicine and how it interacts with other treatments that patients might be on.”

According to the clinic, a registry of patient response and efficacy will be created. This will contribute to the building of an evidence database which could provide information that enables the widespread prescription of medical cannabis.

“For patients who have too long been denied access to cannabis-based products as part of the conventional treatment pathway this decision could be life-changing. And as clinicians this means that we can now move forward with our ultimate aim which is to help patients,” Dr Sodergren concluded.