Im just about to call my local pct and argue my wifes case.. her neurologist wrote to her gp asking him to prescribe sativex... he wouldnt...and told us the pct had told him that gps cannot prescribe it..
so please give me every bit of info i need before i call the pct...

I copied this from another site so i hope this helps you:

There was previously a requirement for doctors wishing to prescribe Sativex® to first contact the Home Office giving details of the patient concerned so that the doctor and the patient could be licensed. However in January 2006 the Home Office issued a licence to GW which permits GW to supply Sativex® and the same licence also permits doctors to prescribe and pharmacists to dispense Sativex®. This licence also permits patients in receipt of a bona fide prescription to possess Sativex®. This means that doctors no longer need to contact the Home Office but can write a prescription and give it to their patient who can then take it to their local pharmacy.

This licence permits doctors to prescribe Sativex® under the Misuse of Drugs legislation should they wish to do so on medical grounds, however Sativex® remains an “unlicensed” medicine in that it has not been approved by the MHRA which is the body responsible for the approval of new medicines and as such any decision to prescribe is entirely at the doctor’s discretion.

To those people having trouble getting enough information for their Doctor/ Consultant, please contact Bayer Pharmers on 01635 563116.

They will confirm that Sativex is freely available to anyone who will take responsabilty to patient care, thats your G.P, Consultant etc

Please note: Some PCTs may suggest Sativex is only available for MS and may refuse to allow the prescription. Please advise your GP that this is no longer the case.

GPs are likely to refuse on clinical grounds i.e. they don't have the experience with it and or managing your condition is a specialist role. To overcome this the drug could be a least initially prescribed by your consultant. This however means that he will have to get it onto the hospital formulary by making a submission to the local drug&therapeutics committee. I must point out it isn't a forgone conclusion that a submission for Sativex will be accepted. The idea then is once your hospital consultant is prescribing it for you and you are stabilised on treatment that your consultant develops a shared-care arrangement so that the prescribing can be taken over by the GP with recourse to the shared-care protocol to support them in this specialist prescribing. You would usually still be reviewed by your consultant (at least annually) although your GP will write your repeat prescription.

In reality though PCTs are dragging their heels due to the immense cost of accepting the long-term prescribing of an unlicensed medicine like Sativex. If the MHRA grant a licence for Sativex later this year then the price will drop and this will become less of an issue. Also I do think that the political football that cannabis has become only makes this whole reluctance on the behalf of GPs to prescribe Sativex 10x worse.

Hope that helps

The pcts put sativex on the traffic light scheme; a caution for all unlicensed medicines

the only person is a Consultant, that can and is able to prescribe this unlicensed medicine

I doubt the PCT would give you this information.

Admittedly different PCTs have slightly different rules as to what is red (hospital only) or amber (amenable to shared-care) as the lists are drawn up locally so what I detailed above would only be if it is considered amber. If it is considered red then as mj says it is only the hospital consultant whom can prescribe assuming it gets put on formulary. That said not all hospitals have strict formularies. The local variation in practice is the problem in that what is true for one may not be true for another.

ok so the gp and the neurologist have to come to an agreement and the neurologist must prescribe first followed by repeats from gp... is that correct?

in most cases, yes
i have a few friends that i have known since my school days and they have GP's willing to prescribe it for MS but due to pct guidelines each GP is required to enter into a shared care agreement with the local neuro clinic as it is an unlicensed drug. unfortunately the local neuro clinic say nay.
the answer ???? imo is to basically kick off to fuck.
i did and at least one of my friends is going to kick off to fuck very very soon too.
imo the postcode lottery involved in obtaining a script is as absurd as cannabis prohibition itself and needs exposing.
it would be a good move for all fighting for sativex to log and diarise everything and then forward any relevant info/findings to Simon Hughes, MP. thanks to ninorc this guy seems genuinely interested.
meanwhile, get your own MP involved aswell as local media.
KICK OFF TO FUCK


E2A scripts have been obtained from pain consultants aswell as neurologists. try your pain clinic if you have no luck with your neuro clinic.
good luck

what about going down the road of a private doctor to get the prescriptions started(like they do in cali) ..would this make any difference?

ive been trying to get sativex for my partner to, we got to the point of getting her gp to actually want to prescribe it an thought all was good then when we went to find out about the prescription an get one her gp told her that it is in a red zone an only specialist pain consultants can precribe it at the moment as maryjane pointed out to me in another thread (thanks), shes now waiting for an apointment, hopefully all goes well. but its jus a hell of a lot of waiting of people to sort shit out. its taking over a year to get this far.
i think gettin it private would work out too expensive if you wanted to use it as a daily kind of thing.

I'm afraid to say you will need to get the specialist to prescribe by the sound of it, i have the same problem my specialist prescribes for me my GP refuses point blank to do so.

Found this on another post by Derek23 <http://www.gwpharm.co.uk/sativex3.asp>
Sorry having a brain dead day and cant remember how to links!

Info suggests you dont require specialist licience!!!!

Hope it helps????

thanks for all the info
its appreciated
GP has passed buck back to neurologist suggesting to him that he prescribes it first
now waiting for a response from neurologist as to wether he will now prescribe it or not..
so we will see how it goes
im better prepared now to fight my corner thanks

Ask to see the neurologist as well GD

being there to fight the case seems also a good ploy.

Good Luck