MATT Hancock went to war with doctors for failing to prescribe medicinal cannabis for sick children.
The Health Secretary vented his deep “frustration” at medics for not using new laws to give the drugs to help severely epileptic kids.
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He spoke out after mum Emma Appleby had her three-month supply of cannabis for her daughter Teagan, 9, confiscated at Southend Airport at the weekend.
Her daughter has a rare chromosomal disorder and suffers from around 300 seizures a day.
Summoned to the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Hancock said: “We changed the law to make sure medicinal cannabis is available on a mainstream basis.
“When that’s the case we need clinical sign off. The problem is that clinical sign off has not been forthcoming.
“That’s a source of immense frustration to me as I hope you can imagine, and that is what we are trying to resolve.”
Tory MP Philip Hollobone demanded to know why “at a time when several police forces have openly admitted that they will not take action against those involved in recreational cannabis use, the full weight of the Home Office’s Border Force is deployed to intercept medication for a seriously ill young child?”
FURY OVER NO HASH FOR SICK CHILDREN
Ms Appleby, from Aylesham near Dover, burst into tears after the drugs she brought back to Britain from Holland were seized by the Border Force.
Mr Hancock said they had not been destroyed and she could get them back if a specialist doctor signs off on the prescription.
He admitted that doctors were still not giving as many prescriptions for the treatment as he had hoped.
But he said that the decision ultimately lay with doctors.
And a string of other MPs told of parents in their own constituencies who are desperate to get medicinal cannabis prescribed for their children – but that doctors are failing to.
SWNS:South West News Service
