Health care professionals with Long Covid: Have they been forgotten? (6 September 2020)

Summary

This blog, published in the BMJ, is written by Editor-in-Chief Alison Twycross and Dr Jake Suett, a staff grade doctor in Intensive Care, who both have suspected Long Covid. They discuss what Long Covid is and discuss some of the employment related issues health care professionals may encounter. 

They are keen to hear from nurses, midwives and other health care professionals with Long Covid about the issues they are facing. Posts on several of the Long Covid Facebook groups suggest that these issues include:

• Being denied full sick pay because they haven’t had a positive test for COVID-19 (despite the unavailability of tests and relatively high incidence of false negatives).
• Employers only applying the COVID-19 enhanced sick pay to staff in the acute phase of illness.
• Being expected to use annual leave for a phased return to work.