Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the NHS has made an assessment of the potential effect of spinal tap on increasing the mobility of wheelchair-bound patients.

Lumbar puncture or ‘spinal tap’ is used to test for conditions affecting the brain, spinal cord or other parts of the nervous system. The hon. Member may be referring to a pioneering treatment, the Injured Spinal Cord Pressure Evaluation Procedure, used to reduce inflammation by reducing pressure build up within the spinal column caused by swelling and so preserving nerve function. This treatment is at an early stage of development and no assessment has yet been made of its potential effect on increasing the mobility of wheelchair users.

NHS England will only consider commissioning procedures and interventions that are evidenced and where the evidence is published or where the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced guidance. This procedure remains in trial phase for acute spinal injury.