Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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890. To ask the Minister for Health the actions that will be taken to ensure that patients with a prescription for products produced by a company (details supplied) can still access the products. [7125/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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On the 14th December 2020, the Minister for Health announced that patients who are prescribed cannabis-based products from a pharmacy in the Netherlands will no longer need to travel there to collect their prescriptions. The temporary delivery service that was announced in April 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, has now been made permanent.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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891. To ask the Minister for Health if all patients that were receiving reimbursement of their prescription costs for medicinal cannabis prior to 21 January 2021 will continue to receive this reimbursement. [7126/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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892. To ask the Minister for Health when permissible products under the medicinal cannabis access programme, MCAP, will be extended to include a variety of cannabis flower. [7127/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A prospective supplier of cannabis-based products can apply to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), on behalf of the Minister, to have a product considered for inclusion in the Medicinal Cannabis Access Programme.

Cannabis products that can be used in the Medical Cannabis Access Programme are defined as ‘specified controlled drugs’ in legislation (SI 262/2019) and the definition outlines the specific requirements for those products.

The criteria that cannabis products must meet in order to be considered by the Minister for inclusion on the schedule are set out in the legislation and can be found in the operator guidance issued by the HPRA.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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893. To ask the Minister for Health if a review has been commissioned on the qualifying conditions under medicinal cannabis access programme, MCAP; if so, the timeline for the review; if not, his plans for such a review; if flexibility will exist on the current list of qualifying conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7128/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) report “Cannabis for Medical Use – A Scientific Review”, the HPRA advised that if access to cannabis is to be permitted for medical purposes that it should only be made available for the treatment of patients with specified medical conditions which have failed to respond to all other previous treatments, and where there is at least modest evidence that cannabis may be effective.

The specified medical conditions (medical indications) are:

1. Spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis resistant to all standard therapies and interventions whilst under expert medical supervision;

2. Intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, despite the use of standard anti-emetic regimes whilst under expert medical supervision;

3. Severe, refractory (treatment-resistant) epilepsy that has failed to respond to standard anticonvulsant medications whilst under expert medical supervision.

The HPRA did not consider that the available evidence supported the use of cannabis in other medical conditions.