Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will review funding and prescribing guidance for medical compression garments for conditions other than lipoedema, including Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.

Medical compression garments are already available to be prescribed in primary and community care. The ability for a prescribing clinician to use these in the treatment and management of conditions including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is already in place. These products are listed on Part IX of the Drug Tariff. The categorisation of Part IX is being gradually updated to enable better comparisons to be made which will help general practitioners to find the right products.

Compression garments have recently been reviewed for leg ulcers. In 2023, the National Wound Care Strategy Programme reviewed its published Recommendations for Leg Ulcers Report. This recommended when to use compression garments for leg ulcers which impact people with diabetes, lymphoedema, venous insufficiency, and peripheral arterial disease.

In August 2025 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published healthtech guidance on Compression products for treating venous leg ulcers.

NICE develops guidance to support the adoption of clinically and cost effective health technologies in the National Health Service. Topics for NICE guidance development are identified through an established prioritisation process. This is designed to ensure that referred topics are aligned to national priorities to drive improved outcomes and value for money in the health and care system and represent the most valuable use of the finite resources available to NICE to update and maintain its guidance portfolio. Under this process, decisions as to whether NICE will develop guidance on a health technology are overseen by a prioritisation board, chaired by their Chief Medical Officer.