By Doctors for Healthcare Professionals to help patients
Sapphire Medical Clinics is formed by doctors. We aim to become a trusted partner of NHS medical professionals and support patients in using medicinal cannabis where other treatments have failed.
Our internationally renowned and respected consultants will assess patients within their area of expertise and if another conventional therapy is available that will be tried first.
Rigorous Prescribing Framework
There are three mechanisms by which Patients and their Healthcare Professionals are reassured that the highest standard of clinical practice and prescribing are upheld. These are:
1. All clinicians are trained to the highest level by international experts with experience in medicinal cannabis prescribing.
2. All clinicians receive bespoke and disease specific clinical and prescribing guidelines developed by Sapphire Medical Clinics using large data sets.
3. Following consultation, all patients are discussed at the central multidisciplinary team meeting involving all the clinicians.
Education
Our Doctors
All of our doctors have been through an intense training program to equip them with the skills required to prescribe this very complex and variable medicine. The program includes face-to-face sessions with an expert cannabis physician, telemedicine clinics with an experienced cannabis counsellor.
Healthcare Professionals
For all UK medical professionals wishing to learn more about medicinal cannabis, we have put together a series of online modules (with examinations) which is the only free CPD certified content in UK.
Why we are safe
We have followed the guidance set by the GMC, MHRA, NHS England.
We have gone beyond this guidance to create our own rigorous Standard Operating Procedures, which are being ratified by the above organisations and will be published on our site in due course. This will guide the future use of medicinal cannabis by closely monitoring adverse events and change in patient outcomes.
We have recruited experienced NHS consultants who are experts in their fields and will only see patients who they would see in their practice in the NHS.
We are aligned to the most up to date research and will continually monitor any new developments.
We will collect data on all of our patients with their consent and will form the first UK registry on medicinal cannabis. This will guide the future use of cannabis, adverse reactions and change in patient outcome to establish where this drug is of most use.
Sapphire Clinics Multidisciplinary Team

Dr Michael Platt MA MBBS FRCA FFPMRCA
Medical Director
Dr Platt has been a consultant and honorary senior lecturer in pain medicine and anaesthetics at Imperial College since 1991.
Following medical training in Australia, he undertook specialist training in anaesthetics and pain medicine in London. He is a professional and highly effective senior consultant in pain medicine and anaesthetics with over 23 years in senior clinical leadership and specialist roles. In his NHS practice he is a senior consultant at the Imperial Pain Clinic and is frequently referred complex patients from other specialists in the UK and abroad.

Professor Praveen Anand
MD, MA, FRCP
Neurology / Neuropathic Pain
Professor Praveen Anand is Professor of Clinical Neurology and honorary Consultant Neurologist at Imperial College London.

Dr Mark Weatherall
MBBC, FRCP, PhD, MA
General Neurology
Dr Mark Weatherall is a Consultant Neurologist at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

Dr Shaheen Khan
BSc, MSc, MBBS, FRCP
Palliative Care
Dr Shaheen Khan is a Consultant in Palliative Care and Clinical Director at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Jonathan Hoare
MA, FRCP, PhD
Gastroenterology / General Medicine
Dr Hoare has been consultant in Gastroenterology and General Internal Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College, since 2006.

Dr James Rucker
MBBS, BSc, MRCPsych, PhD
Psychiatry
Dr Rucker is a Clinician Scientist (senior clinical lecturer level) at The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

Dr Sushil Beri
MBBS, MD, DNB, MRCPCH
Paediatric Neurology
Dr Beri is a consultant paediatric neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
Sapphire Consultants
Our growing team of Specialist Consultants expands beyond the Multi-Disciplinary Team and now includes the following clinicians. All of our doctors have been through an intense training program to equip them with the skills required to safely prescribe cannabis-based medicines.

Dr Mohammed Sajad MBChB FRCA, FCAI PGDip
Pain Specialist
Dr. Sajad graduated in 2005 from Birmingham and, since 2016, has been working as a consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine at the Dudley Group of Hospitals in the West Midlands.

Dr Azfer Usmani
MBBS, FRCA, FCARCSI, FFPMRCA
Pain Specialist
Dr. Azfer Usmani is presently working with Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, Kent. He specializes in management of a wide array of chronic pain conditions using the latest techniques in pain management.

Dr Kavita Praveen
MBBS, MRCPsych, AFMCP
Paediatric Psychiatry
Dr Kavita Praveen has extensive experience, expertise and passion in the field of Mental Health both within the National Health Service and Independent Sector.

Dr Hassan Kapadia
BMedSc (Hons), MBChB, PGDipCT, DRCOG, MRCPsych
Psychiatry
Dr Kapadia is a consultant psychiatrist with over 16 years' psychiatry experience.

Dr Ezzat Awad
MBBC, MRCP, Msc
General Neurology
Dr Ezzat Awad is a Neurology Consultant with special interest in Epilepsy and Functional Neurological Disorder at Mid and South Essex University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Richard Watchorn
MB BCh BAO MD FRCP
Dermatology
Dr Watchorn is a Consultant Dermatologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Dr Anastasia Therianou
MD PhD
Dermatology
Dr Anastasia Therianou works as a Consultant Dermatologist at the world-renowned Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.