Britain's first medicinal cannabis clinic opens in Greater Manchester
A new private clinic in Greater Manchester has become the UK’s first specialist medicinal cannabis centre.
Patients at The Beeches, in Cheadle, will pay £200 for appointments with doctors and between £600 and £700 a month for a prescription. Decisions to prescribe cannabis will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and will only be considered when staff are satisfied that licensed products cannot treat the condition. The clinical director of The Beeches is Prof Mike Barnes, who last year helped secure the first medicinal cannabis licence for epilepsy sufferer Alfie Dingley. Barnes said: “Patients suffering from chronic pain and other serious neurological or psychiatric conditions have been crying out for this kind of life-changing treatment. “This clinic will represent a lifeline to those who have found other treatments ineffective. This also brings the UK into line with other countries when it comes to pain management.
“The hope is that over time patients all around the country and not just in Manchester will have access to the relief that they need.”
Dr David McDowell, who will run The Beeches, has previously prescribed medicinal cannabis to the 32-year-old student Forzana Nasir, from south London. She suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which leaves her in severe pain and suffering from nausea and vomiting. Since using medical cannabis, Nasir said she had gone from taking 13 different medications a day to three.
Nasir said: “Having access to this medicine allows me to ease my chronic pain which turns an unbearable day into a manageable day. It has been life-changing for me.
I was almost bed-bound before this and now I have much greater quality of life.” The government announced last year that specialist doctors would be allowed to prescribe cannabis products to patients for medicinal use from November.
Source: theguardian.com
