Dr Mike Platt, honorary senior clinical lecturer and senior consultant in pain medicines and anesthetics at Imperial College Healthcare, NHS Trust has been in the 'business of pain' since 1990.
However, his well established career as a pain consultant took an unexpected turn when he became clinical director at the Sapphire Clinics catering to patients wishing to access medical cannabis in the UK privately.
With very little training on offer to the medical profession in the UK, Dr Platt's knowledge has been gained largely from doctors in Canada, where medical cannabis has been legal since 2001.
Since joining Sapphire, he's found prescribing cannabis to be tremendously helpful in alleviating the symptoms of a number of patients, some of which he discusses in this podcast.
“What we're finding is in patients that have really complex pain problems, many benefit from cannabis medication,” says Platt. “We don't really understand why, but they do seem to have an extraordinary effect on them. I had one lady with severe Ehlers-Danlos syndrome who within two days just texted the pain clinic and said I've had the first good night sleep in fifteen years. So it's clearly having an effect on these patients, particularly the more complex ones.”
Useful Resources:
Mike's website
Sapphire Clinics
Sapphire Medical Foundation