Scotland's first medical cannabis clinic to open in Aberdeen

Aberdeen could be home to Scotland's first and only medical cannabis clinic.

Sapphire Medical Clinics are currently going through the process of gaining the proper registrations to start providing the drug to people living in Scotland.

The company says:

"The Aberdeen based clinic will prescribe medical cannabis for all conditions acknowledged to benefit from the treatment. Sapphire Medical Clinics are in the advanced stages of securing Care Inspectorate registration for the clinic which will open soon in Aberdeen. Sapphire Medical Clinics have partnered with the Blackberry Clinic Group as part of their expansion in Scotland. "

Managing Director of Sapphire Medical Clinics and Academic Lead Dr Mikael Sodergren said, ‘We are proud to be opening the first clinic in Scotland and have already seen first-hand how medical cannabis is transforming lives. That’s why we are delighted to be opening our doors to patients in Aberdeen."

"It means patients in Scotland will now have access to world-class experts in managing their condition, who also have expertise in medical cannabis. Medical cannabis is an exciting and rapidly developing field of medicine that could transform the lives of patients living with certain conditions. But prescription numbers have been low, held down by patients who are often in significant pain or with physical disabilities, being unable to travel the long distances to clinics."

"This in turn has meant building the clinical evidence on patients in the UK has also been slow. Our expansion will mean that we can greatly increase the numbers of patients that we see and then crucially accelerate the amount of evidence gathered’.

NHS Grampian have reacted with concern, a spokesperson for the health board says:

“There is currently a route of access via the NHS for medicinal cannabis products. This is restricted to conditions where there is evidence of benefit or accepted UK guidelines for use. Currently, in Scotland, this only includes complex intractable epilepsy or nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy treatment.

“There are a limited number of licensed medicinal cannabis products - Epidyolex (Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, Dravet Syndrome), Sativex (licensed for use in multiple sclerosis however not recommended for use in NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium) and Nabilone (Nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy unresponsive to other treatments). Many of the conditions listed by this provider would be outwith the licensed use of the currently available medicinal cannabis products.

“It is concerning that this private clinic operates on the mechanism of GP referrals given the treatments used in the clinic would not be available nor recognised by the NHS. There is the risk of significant GP time being utilised to provide clients access to this private healthcare.

“There is clear NHS Grampian guidance for prescribing following a private consultation. Any patient using private healthcare should be under no presumption that any medicines prescribed could or should be continued on the NHS. This would only occur where it is appropriate and available for NHS usage. As noted above appropriate any prescribing outwith the currently approved usage (epilepsy, nausea & vomiting) would not be approved.”