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806 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI agree that there are other medicines, but one of the challenges is how we treat people with ongoing needs as their conditions vary, if we do not have the ability to understand…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisFirst, I congratulate the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) on securing this debate. I agree with colleagues’ comments: it has been incredibly helpful to have…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisNot no more, but I understand where his passion comes from. I can also see in their places the hon. Member for Manchester, Withington (Jeff Smith)—we have spoken about this…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI understand that point and I have said to those parents that I would struggle. In fact I would probably find it impossible to offer my child something else when they were already…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI would like to reassure the hon. Lady that we do look elsewhere, but it fundamentally comes back to the fact that observational trials on very small cohorts are not the best way…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI am going to make a little progress, because at this rate we will go up to the end of the time. I will come to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead. While this…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI thank the hon. Lady because she encapsulates in a nutshell what the challenges are. This is extremely difficult without that knowledge of what the contra-indications are. I was…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI thank my right hon. Friend. I have met clinicians, as well as the families. Like just about every other area of medicine, there is divergence in how they approach it. There are…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI do not believe we are stuck, but we should proceed with caution. I think that is a totally acceptable way to go on. I think it was the hon. Member for Edinburgh West who asked…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisOne minute. The cost of parents accessing private treatments remains the responsibility of patients. I am aware that the cost remains high and has brought immeasurable hardship to…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisOne second. On the expansion of Epidiolex, NICE will work with the manufacturer to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the medicine in the indicated patient group before…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI will focus on the end bit. We do need to give clinicians comfort if they are going to prescribe medicines that help alleviate children’s pain. The challenge with the…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisThat is true. However, people have to come forward with clinical trials designed in a way that is acceptable and gives us robust outcomes. We have discussed this and Psilocybin,…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI am obviously very cognisant of the latter point, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead mentioned a court case. This adds to the need to find solutions to the…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisIt is not in my gift to take that option, but I will take that comment back to the Health Secretary and have further discussions. As I said, in our very first meeting he…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisThe hon. Lady is looking at her phone intently and jumping up again, so I will give way.06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisYes, finally, but then I am going to conclude.06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI hope that I outlined earlier that a mixture of solutions is needed to crack this problem. We are not taking anything off the table. We are looking at every option that we can to…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisHannah has said those exact words to me. That is why I say that we have to look at this in a selection of doable, achievable pieces, because it is not possible to look at it for…06 Sept 2021HANSARD Medicinal CannabisI will give way first to my right hon. Friend.06 Sept 2021