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<p>NHS England and NHS Improvement are 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 and NHS Improvement Controlled Drug Accountable Officers are also collecting
local intelligence in both the National Health Service and independent sector.</p><p>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. The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold information
on prescriptions for cannabis-based medicines which have been issued but not fulfilled.</p><p>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 NHS
prescription, dispensed in the community and submitted to the NHS Business Services
Authority for reimbursement between January 2018 and April 2019.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>NHS
prescription items dispensed</p></td><td><p>January 2018 – April 2019</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nabilone</p></td><td><p>752</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sativex</p></td><td><p>2,672</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unlicensed
cannabis-based medicines</p></td><td><p>8 (data currently only available for November
2018 – March 2019). Data not yet available for April 2019.</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>The following table shows the same products listed above covering the same
time period but this data relates to private prescribing on an FP10PCD where the forms
have been submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority for reporting and monitoring
purposes only.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Private prescription items dispensed</p></td><td><p>January
2018 – December 2018</p></td><td><p>January 2019 – April 2019</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nabilone</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sativex</p></td><td><p>24</p></td><td><p>13</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Epidiolex</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unlicensed
cannabis-based medicines</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>9 (data currently only available
for January 2019 to March 2019). Data not yet available for April 2019.</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>Unlike NHS primary care where all dispensed prescriptions are processed centrally,
this is not the case for secondary care. This information is collected by a third
party and not routinely published.</p><p>Intelligence from NHS England and NHS Improvement
Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers is that, up until the end of March 2019, five
patients have had private prescriptions issued for a cannabis-based product for medicinal
use in independent secondary/tertiary care in England.</p><p>145 patients have accessed
Epidiolex though GW Pharma’s early access programmes ahead of a licensing decision
by the European Medicines Agency.</p>
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