People with long Covid urgently need help. Why can't we access it?
Joanna Herman, a consultant in infectious diseases, had high hopes when Boris Johnson announced £10m for long Covid clinics. Five months on, she is yet to be referred to one.
"Despite the government recently giving £18.5m research funding for the disease, it feels as though all focus is now on the vaccine and the lifting of lockdown, while those living with long Covid have been largely forgotten," says Joanna.
Her initial illness was, by definition, a mild case of Covid: no hospital admission and no risk factors for severe disease. Months later she found herself experiencing crashing post-exertional fatigue, sporadic chest pains and a brain that felt it was only half functioning. And she is not alone. According to a study published last September from researchers at King’s College London, 60,000 people in the UK were likely to have been suffering from long Covid. The actual number is now probably far higher.
There are now 69 long Covid clinics up and running across the country, according to the NHS England website. Yet Joanna has not been able to access one – and neither have others she knows with long Covid.
Joanna asked doctors in her field what was happening with long Covid clinics in their local areas. She contacted 18 infectious disease colleagues based in teaching hospitals around the country. Of the 16 who responded, 6 had formal long Covid clinics. Some said that provision for the disease was woefully inadequate, while others reported they only saw only patients who had been admitted to hospital with acute COVID-19. In her own local teaching hospital, funding for long Covid patients is scattered across various departments and there is no dedicated team for these patients.
"...it feels as though many long-haulers remain in a post-viral sea, looking for a mooring in the hope that something can be offered. We’ve known about this disease since last summer, and it has been officially recognised since October, but we’re only just starting to understand how to support those living with it"
Source: The Guardian, 10 March 2021