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Written question asked by Rosie Duffield (Labour) on Tuesday, 5 September 2023, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 7 September 2023. It was answered by Will Quince (Conservative) on Wednesday, 13 September 2023 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Headaches: Medical Treatments

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of funding sphenopalatine ganglion block treatment on the NHS.

Answer

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not made an assessment.

NICE has published a clinical guideline (CG150) on the diagnosis and management of headaches in children aged over 12 years old and recommends several treatments for tension-type headache, migraine, cluster headache and medication overuse headache. If new evidence on the use of sphenopalatine ganglion block became available, then NICE would consider the impact it has on its current recommendations.

NHS England also carefully reviewed the evidence to commission Sphenopalatine Ganglion Stimulation for Refractory Chronic Cluster Headache (Adults) in 2018, and concluded that there is not enough evidence to consider making the treatment available at this time. More information on the NHS evidence review is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Sphenopalatine-Ganglion-Stimulation-for-Refractory-Chronic-Cluster-Headache-adults.pdf

NHS England can review this policy or consider a new policy for this treatment for a different clinical indication, in line with the published methods for clinical policy development, if a lead clinician considers that there is new published, peer reviewed evidence that should be considered.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
197830
Session
2022-23
Subjects
Finance Medical treatments Headaches
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk