Harley Street clinic not following correct cannabis protocols, watchdog says
By Jacob Phillips, Local Democracy Service
A Harley Street clinic which gives patients cannabis-based medicine is being looked into after a watchdog found it did not always follow prescribing rules.
The Medical Cannabis Clinic was rated as Requires Improvement by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March 2022 after staff did not know how to care for patients and safety concerns were raised. It is now being assessed again.
During the last visit, the clinic did not have a formal recruitment process for clinical staff and care records did not always say what patients were being treated for.
A report by the CQC said: “Staff did not always have the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment to patients.
“Individual care records did not always indicate what the patient was being treated for.
“We noted that on some records the reason why the [Cannabis Based Products for Medicinal Use] had been prescribed was not clearly stated in the patient’s records.”
Cannabis-based products were also being prescribed more often than the Department of Health recommends.
The provider did have systems in place to protect people from avoidable harm and abuse, it was noted. But it was further criticised for how it handled medicines.
Prescriptions from another service had also been used on occasions to obtain medicines from their pharmacy. The CQC also found there was a lack of transparency with patients about their pharmacy choice.
The report added: “We found that some records did not contain adequate details about how patients were being monitored for both safety and the effectiveness of the treatments prescribed.
“We found one example where a patient had been issued a follow-up prescription but there was no consultation record at all.
“We also found a record for another patient which did not include details or rationale as to why prescribing had been initiated for them given that one of the medical conditions they were experiencing was an exclusion criteria. This put the patient at risk of harm.”
The Medical Cannabis Clinic has been contacted for comment.
Pictured top: A cannabis sativa leaf (Picture: Wikimedia Commons / Skalle-Per Hedenhös)