Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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1184. To ask the Minister for Health the position regrading the compassionate access scheme for cannabis based treatment; the timeframe for its implementation; if his attention has been drawn to the ongoing hardship that persons (details supplied) are continuing to go through in view of the fact they have been separated from their family in order to access a specific treatment in the Netherlands; the measures he has taken and plans to assist the person in this matter; if his department has had contact with the persons' medical team in the Netherlands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38235/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On foot of the conclusions of the Health Products Regulatory Authority’s (HPRA) report, ‘Cannabis for Medical Use – A Scientific Review’, which was published in February 2017, I undertook to establish an access programme for cannabis-based treatments for patients, under the care of a medical consultant, for certain medical conditions including refractory epilepsy. As the Access Programme will be administered by clinicians, I have set up a clinical expert group to draw up clinical guidelines for physicians, pharmacists and patients. This group is due to report shortly and it is expected the Cannabis Access Programme will come into operation later this year.

Pending the establishment of the Access Programme, if a consultant believes that any patient, child or adult, requires a controlled substance that is not a legal medicine, that consultant can seek a licence from my Department. As of now, there are no licence applications pending in my Department. The role of the Minister for Health in relation to the licence application process only comes into play once a valid licence application has been received from a clinician, for a named patient, where the course of cannabis-based treatment has been endorsed by the patient’s consultant who is responsible for the management of the patient, and who is prepared to monitor the effects of the treatment over time.

Licence applications received from medical consultants will be processed immediately.

In the case referred to by the Deputy, my Department officials have advised the patient’s carers that it is solely a matter for the clinician, in consultation with their patient and the patient’s carers, to decide on an appropriate course of treatment for his/her patient and that it would be wholly inappropriate for a Minister for Health or his Department officials to seek to instruct or influence any doctor to prescribe a particular treatment for a patient.

Similarly, clinical treatment plans should be determined and directed between clinicians through normal healthcare professional communication pathways, regardless of where those clinicians are located. The sharing of such clinical information may help to ensure the treating consultant in Ireland has appropriate access to a professionally documented clinical and medication history for the patient they are treating and could assist in the consultant’s clinical decision making process.