Question reference: S6W-04291
- Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 12 November 2021
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 November 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03587 by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2021, whether hyperbaric treatment is currently being considered by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) as a possible treatment, and when a decision will be taken on whether it will be made available to patients.
Answer
The UK wide clinical guideline on managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 has been developed collaboratively by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
The evidence reviews on interventions for long COVID were carried out by NICE. At present there is no evidence on hyperbaric oxygen therapy within the guideline.
NICE’s surveillance methods have indicated there is no new evidence which meets the research protocol for interventions on long COVID. However NICE will continue to carry out surveillance on all guideline questions, including the question on interventions, and the results of this surveillance will inform future updates to the living guideline.
There have been long COVID research calls by the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation asking for projects investigating possible therapies for long COVID and a number of studies of this type have been funded.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment has not formed part of any application to either of these calls. Other ongoing calls are open and available for long COVID research applications and if a project on hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment for long COVID was received, it would be considered.