Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recommendations his Department is making as to the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy treatment in dealing with Long covid.

The Department is not currently making any recommendations regarding hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment (HBOT) for long COVID due to a lack of scientific evidence to support its use.

There have been two long COVID research calls launched by the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation, resulting in 19 funded projects. The calls specifically asked for projects investigating possible therapies for long COVID and a number of studies of this type have been funded. HBOT 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 HBOT for long COVID was received, it would be considered.

The Department is aware of clinical trials currently taking place internationally, which are researching the use of HBOT for long COVID.