Dr. John Devlin:

Questions were asked about who has overall responsibility for the clinical care provided and whether it is GPs or the Minister. With regard to the clinical autonomy issue, doctors are bound by the ethical guidelines of the Medical Council.

It is clear from the Medical Council guidelines that the doctor-patient relationship is absolutely sacrosanct whether it is in the context of general care or the appropriateness of any clinical treatments and so on. It would not be appropriate, therefore, for anybody to try to influence the decision-making process in this regard because it is between the doctor and the patient. The Medical Council is clear in respect of the guidance on prescribing and clinical autonomy with regard to those provisions.

There were questions about the current process of making a licence application. I am talking in generalities and not in terms of confidentiality. The advice of the Chief Medical Officer, which issued yesterday, is that consideration must be taken of any unintended consequence associated with the prescription of cannabis as a schedule one controlled drug for medical purposes and its use must be endorsed by a consultant who is familiar with the care of the individual on behalf of whom the licence application is being made.