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Showing results for tags 'Post-virus support'.
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News Article
Calls for compensation scheme for UK frontline workers with long Covid
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Boris Johnson is being urged to launch a compensation scheme for frontline workers who are suffering from the long-term effects of coronavirus. The all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus said the prime minister should recognise long Covid as an occupational disease, saying some sufferers have found it hard to return to work. A letter, signed by more than 60 MPs and peers, has been sent to Johnson. Layla Moran, the APPG’s chair, said: “Long Covid is the hidden health crisis of the pandemic, and it is likely to have an enormous impact on society for many years to come. “When it comes to frontline NHS, care and key workers, they were specifically asked to go to work and save lives while everyone else was asked to stay at home." “They were exposed to an increased level of risk of catching the virus, often without adequate levels of PPE.” The group wants the government to follow France, Germany, Belgium and Denmark, which have formally recognised Covid as an “occupational disease”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 February 2021 -
News ArticleThe World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to prioritise rehabilitation for the medium and long term consequences of covid-19 and to gather information on “long covid” more systematically. WHO has produced a standardised form to report clinical data from individual patients after hospital discharge or after their acute illness to examine the medium and long term consequences of COVID-19.1 It has also set up technical working groups to build a consensus on the clinical description of what WHO now calls “the post-covid-19 condition” and to define research priorities. Speaking at the first of a series of seminars, WHO’s director general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, highlighted the “three Rs”—recognition, research, and rehabilitation. Recognition of the post-covid-19 condition was now increasing, he said, but still not enough research was carried out. He added that countries needed to show commitment to including rehabilitation as part of their healthcare service. “Long covid has an impact on the individual, on society, and on the economy,” he warned. Read full story Source: BMJ, 10 February 2021
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News ArticleTens of thousands of coronavirus survivors needing long-term care are heaping pressure on Britain’s stretched community services, threatening a crisis that experts warn could dwarf that seen in hospitals over the past 12 months. As many as 100,000 intensive care patients, including up to 15,000 Covid-19 survivors, will need long-term community nursing care after being discharged from hospitals during the past 12 months, The Independent has been told. This will be on top of an as yet unknown number of Covid patients from the 350,000 treated on general wards since the pandemic began, as well as tens of thousands of people who were sick without going to hospital but have been left with debilitating symptoms of long Covid. Labour’s shadow health minister Liz Kendall warned: “There will be huge pressures on community services as people who need long-term support are discharged back into their own homes. “Ministers have got to put in place a proper workforce strategy for the NHS and community care otherwise we will see people struggling to recover and the burden of care could also fall on their families." “This is one of the long-term consequences of Covid that we haven’t begun to even think through yet.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 February 2021
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News ArticleThe MP leading an investigation into coronavirus fears Long Covid will be one of the biggest issues facing the UK for the next decade, after emerging research revealed most sufferers are still unable to work six months in. Layla Moran branded the scale of the problem ‘enormous’, as various experts warned that even healthy young adults have been left struggling to function for months on end. With hundreds of thousands of Brits now believed to have Long Covid, medics fear its impact on the world of work could herald another ‘massive economic crisis’. Workers in their 20s and 30s have told of a host of debilitating symptoms keeping them out of the office for much of last year and making simple tasks like walking to the toilet seem ‘like climbing a mountain’. Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Ms Moran – who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on coronavirus – said: "The scale of this, in terms of the future prosperity of our country, is enormous. It is going to be, I think, one of the main issues that we are going to deal with not just in ten years but beyond." Read full story Source: Metro, 4 February 2021
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News ArticlePress release 3 February 2021 The charity Patient Safety Learning and patient group Long Covid Support are calling for the creation of a dedicated Minister for Long Covid to take a coordinated, multi-stakeholder approach to this issue.[1] Long Covid patients are people with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 who continue to struggle with prolonged, debilitating and sometimes severe symptoms months later.[2] Statistics indicate that there are currently hundreds of thousands of people living with Long Covid in the UK, with at least one in 10 people still experiencing symptoms 12 weeks after initial infection.[3] While there has been some progress to put in place support for people with Long Covid, there remains a complex spectrum of issues that need to be addressed. These are summarised in a blog, published by Patient Safety Learning and Long Covid Support today, calling for the UK Government to make urgent and significant improvements in their response to Long Covid.[4] Claire Hastie of the Long Covid Support, said: “Almost one year on from when many first fell ill, people with Long Covid are simply not getting the help they need. There is an urgent need to increase the pace and scale of the response to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected (including children). This needs to be driven by a dedicated minister with the power to affect change.” Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “People living with Long Covid have too often been left ‘joining the dots’ trying to understand how they can access safe, quality treatment and support and what they can do to improve their health. Clinical advice and access to further investigations has been inconsistent, leaving many feeling abandoned, confused and understandably concerned for their future health outcomes. Long Covid not only impacts people’s physical and mental health, but also their ability to work and their economic circumstances. We believe the appointment of a Minister for Long Covid would help to provide leadership, accountability and a coordinated response to these challenges.” Notes to editors: [1] Patient Safety Learning is a charity and independent voice for improving patient safety. We harness the knowledge, insights, enthusiasm and commitment of health and social care organisations, professionals and patients for system-wide change and the reduction of avoidable harm. [2] The symptoms for those with Long Covid vary greatly but many are experiencing rashes, shortness of breath, neurological and gastrointestinal problems, abnormal temperatures, cardiac symptoms and extreme fatigue. [3] Office for National Statistics, The prevalence of Long Covid symptoms and Covid-19 complications, 16 December 2020. https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/theprevalenceoflongcovidsymptomsandcovid19complications [4] Patient Safety Learning and Long Covid Support, Long Covid Minister needed to respond to the growing crisis, 3 February 2020. https://www.patientsafetylearning.org/blog/long-covid-minister-needed-to-respond-to-growing-crisis
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News Article
We're about to see a wave of long Covid. When will ministers take it seriously?
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Long Covid is no respecter of youth, health or fitness. It afflicts more women than men but it can strike anyone down, including people whose initial infection seemed mild, or even asymptomatic. In some cases, long Covid could mean lifelong Covid. The effects can be horrible. Among them are lung damage, heart damage and brain damage that can cause memory loss and brain fog, kidney damage, severe headaches, muscle and joint pain, loss of taste and smell, anxiety, depression and, above all, fatigue. We should all fear the lasting consequences of this pandemic. Long Covid is shorthand for a range of conditions. Some scientists divide them into three broad categories, others into four. Of these, one seems to ring a bell. It’s a cluster of symptoms that bear a strong similarity to myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This is a devastating condition that affects roughly a quarter of a million people in the UK, and is often caused, like long Covid, by viral infection. Among the common symptoms of ME/CFS are extreme fatigue that is not relieved by rest, and “post-exertional malaise”: even mild physical or mental effort can make patients extremely unwell. Many sufferers are confined to their home or even their bed, with their working life, social life and family life truncated. There is, so far, no diagnostic test and no cure. Yet ME/CFS has been disgracefully neglected by science and medicine. The NHS is now setting up specialist clinics to treat long Covid. But already, apparent mistakes are being made. Without the necessary caveats, the NHS recommends steadily increasing levels of exercise for people suffering from post-Covid fatigue. But as ME/CFS patients with post-exertional malaise know, this prescription, though it sounds intuitive, could be highly damaging. We need massive research programmes into both long Covid and ME/CFS, coupled with better information for doctors. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2021 -
News ArticleYounger people who think they are “invincible” need to be aware of the shocking life-changing reality of long Covid, according to health professionals who are living with the condition. Long Covid, also known as post-Covid syndrome, is used to describe the effects of COVID-19 that continue for weeks or months beyond the initial illness. Speaking at the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus, Dr Nathalie MacDermott, 38, said neurologists believe Covid has damaged her spinal cord and she can only walk about 200 metres without some form of assistance. She said the damage has affected her bladder and bowel too, causing urinary tract infections, and she gets pain in her arms and has weakness in her grip. Dr MacDermott, a clinical doctor sub-specialising in paediatric infectious diseases in the NHS, told MPs there needs to be “better recognition” from employers that long Covid is a “genuine condition” and that people may need to be off work for a significant period of time. She added: “And I think we need better recognition in the public, particularly the younger public who think that they’re invincible. “I’m 38 and I wonder if I’ll ever be able to walk properly without crutches again. Will this continue to get worse? Will I end up in a wheelchair?” Read full story Source: 12 January 2021, Lancashire Post
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News Article
Coronavirus hospital patients still have symptoms six months later, study finds
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Three quarters of patients surveyed at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China had at least one ongoing symptom The majority of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus still had symptoms six months after getting ill, a new study has revealed. Over three quarters of Covid patients surveyed at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China had at least one ongoing symptom – with the most commonly reported being fatigue or muscle weakness. A total of 1,733 patients, with a median age of 57, were examined for the study between 7 January and 29 May last year. At a follow-up, 76% of patients reported at least one ongoing symptom. Read the full article here -
News Article
Post-illness symptoms like long Covid are probably more common than we think
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
In recent months, long Covid has received a great deal of media and public attention. Research has found that as many as one in four of those infected with Covid suffer from chronic long-term symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, abdominal pain, heart problems, fatigue, anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment and other conditions. It is a difficult and complex illness, and we must do much more to help those who are struggling with it. At the same time, it is important to realise that rather than being a strange special case, long Covid is probably part of a broader phenomenon that affects many more people. In recent years, doctors and researchers have increasingly realised that many of those who survive an illness of any kind, or who go through serious physical trauma, are at high risk for a range of debilitating and chronic physical, cognitive and mental health symptoms – problems that closely resemble long Covid. As medicine has advanced, clinicians have learned how to save hundreds of thousands of severely ill or injured patients who would have previously died. Although this is a remarkable accomplishment, however, in many cases, survival does not mean complete recovery: some patients find that their bodies, brains and psyches continue to bear the scars of what they have gone through. One non-Covid study found that a year after hospitalisation, a third of patients with severe respiratory failure or shock had significant cognitive impairment. Another found that between a quarter and a third of patients who were treated in the ICU had significant and long-lasting symptoms of anxiety, depression or PTSD. Researchers have found similar results for survivors of other medical conditions, including cancer, multiple sclerosis and ALS. Unfortunately, people with long Covid, as well as other chronic post-illness symptoms, often find that the medical establishment doesn’t understand their experience, and so minimises or questions it. This is not surprising: clinicians tend to pay less attention to how patients with severe illness do once they are out of mortal danger, or once symptoms extend beyond an arbitrary time frame. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 September 2021 -
News Article
Attitudes to long Covid are straight out of the ME playbook
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Dr Kelly Fearnley caught COVID-19 in November 2020, after being redeployed to work on a coronavirus ward. Ten months on, she’s still living with debilitating symptoms of the condition known as long Covid. The latest estimates, published in June, suggest more than two million people in the UK have had long Covid since the pandemic began, while figures released by the Office for National Statistics in April show that more than 120,000 of those are NHS staff. Dr Fearnley discusses with iNews her experience of being taken to hospital after becoming seriously unwell. Dr Fearnley had a high resting heart rate and wasn’t able to get out of bed. She had pins and needles and was experiencing attacks of breathlessness, as well as violent shaking of her entire body. Yet, after running tests, she says the senior doctor she saw made it clear they believed Dr Fearnley was suffering from anxiety. “I was [treated as] an anxious little girl. My concerns weren’t taken seriously. Despite being a doctor myself, I felt let down by my colleagues at a time when I needed help but help wasn’t there,” Dr Fearnley said. “Sadly, I know my experience isn’t uncommon. I know a lot of long haulers have had their symptoms dismissed as anxiety.” But Dr Fearnley’s experience is also not unique to long Covid patients. “There’s a long history in medicine of dismissing hard-to-diagnose and hard-to-treat patients as having psychological or behavioural problems,” says Brian Hughes, Professor of Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. “Historically, these problems have also been far more likely to emerge where illnesses primarily affect women,” he added. There are countless examples of this, but the condition that’s been most closely linked to long Covid is myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS. 2020 research into GPs’ knowledge and understanding of the condition found that between a third and half of GPs did not accept ME as a “genuine clinical entity“. As a result, patients have continued to have their symptoms disbelieved or dismissed as psychological for decades. Read full story Source: iNews, 9 September 2021 -
News Article
More than 2 million people in the UK may have suffered from long Covid
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
A new survey of half a million adults in the UK has revealed more than 2 million may have suffered from long Covid. Currently, long Covid is not fully understood and its definition has not yet been agreed upon. The self-reported survey showed 37% of respondents experienced at least one symptom lasting 12 weeks or more with higher weight, smoking, lower incomes and having a chronic illness being associated with a higher chance of experiencing symptoms of long Covid. The government has issued £50m in funding for research on long Covid. Read full story. Source: BBC News, 24 June 2021 -
News ArticlePeople who remain chronically ill after Covid infections in England have had to wait months for appointments and treatment at specialist clinics set up to handle the surge in patients with long Covid. MPs called on Matt Hancock, the health secretary, to explain the lengthy waiting times and what they described as a “shameful postcode lottery” which left some patients facing delays of more than four months before being assessed at a specialist centre while others were seen within days. NHS England announced in December that people with long Covid, or post-Covid syndrome, could seek help at more than 60 specialist clinics. But despite government assertions in January that the network of 69 centres was already operating, the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus found that some clinics were still not up and running three months later. Freedom of information requests submitted to NHS trusts revealed that while some clinics had opened and were seeing patients, others had been delayed by the second wave of infections in January. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 30 May 2021
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Event
Long COVID Physio International Forum
Sam posted an event in Community Calendar
untilLong COVID Physio will host the Long COVID Physio International Forum in partnership with Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions and Fisiocamera, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and Realize Canada. The two day online forum will bring the lived experience to Long COVID, disability and rehabilitation. The Long COVID Physio International Forum is suitable for any audience, including health and social care professionals, people living with or affected by Long COVID or other conditions, academics, service providers, policymakers, students of allied health and rehabilitation professions, and people wanting to learn more. The Long COVID Physio International Forum programme will be released soon. Programme content will be delivered live and available on demand, covering three different streams: Science - learn the most up to date research from leaders in the field. Discussion - the hot discussions and debates on the topics we all want. Workshop - share knowledge and skills that make a difference. Registration will open June 15th 2022. Further details can be found here. -
EventuntilThe UK may have now past the worse of the pandemic, but the burden of Long Covid is only going to intensify in the weeks and months ahead. Estimates suggest that well over a million people are suffering from the condition, nearly half of whom have struggled with persistent symptoms for at least a year. Many will have developed Long Covid after the recent Omicron wave, which fuelled millions of weekly infections over the Christmas period. Yet support and treatment for these individuals has been in short supply. The NHS’ dedicated long Covid clinics have struggled to cope with high demand from patients, who feel neglected and ignored by the health system. Some ‘long haulers,’ as they’re known, have come together to form support groups and have regularly petitioned the government for more help and recognition of their plight. Despite the many challenges that lie ahead, there is some hope on the horizon: scientists are starting to make progress in better understanding long Covid and closing in on some of the biggest questions surrounding the condition. To discuss all of these themes, join out expert panel hosted by The Independent's Health Correspondent Rebecca Thomas and Science Correspondent Samuel Lovett, with Dr Elaine Maxwell, Professor Amitava Banerjee and Professor Brendan Delaney. Register
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EventuntilThe next NHS England and NHS Improvement wellbeing community event, hosted by the People Directorate and facilitated by NHS Horizons will be focusing on: ‘Supporting our NHS People affected by Long Covid’ By joining this session, you will be able to take away information and guidelines on how to support the wellbeing of our NHS people who are affected by Long Covid. Register
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EventuntilThis Westminster Forum is an opportunity to discuss the implementation of the NHS Long COVID plan for 2021/22, how to utilise funding set out for the expansion of services and management of Long COVID within primary care, the future outlook for Long COVID research, and the impact of new NIHR-funded projects. Key areas for discussion include: delivery of the Long COVID Plan and the utilisation of allocated funding priority areas for research to further improve understanding of Long COVID and the effectiveness of services developed for the condition care pathways within local health systems - leadership, implementation and commissioning, service development, rehabilitation, the impact of health inequalities, and integrating care Long COVID assessment clinics: - assessing progress and what more is needed to improve accessibility and support referrals from primary care - priorities for the development of services for children support for the health workforce - training and education priorities and sharing best practice in Long COVID care utilising data - scaling up its use and improving understanding of Long COVID and its prevalence involving patients - the development of Long COVID services, driving awareness of expanded online support, and improving equal accessibility to information. Agenda Register
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Event
Long Covid: A community-focused response
Sam posted an event in Community Calendar
untilWe’re no longer in a national lockdown and life feels as though it is slowly getting back to normal, but for those who contracted COVID-19 and are still living with the debilitating consequences of the virus, the battle is far from won. With almost 400,000 UK adults experiencing the prevailing symptoms of COVID-19 over a year after first contracting the virus, Long Covid continues to remain on the agenda as a pressing and pertinent issue. This webinar from National Voices explores a person-centred response to Long Covid. This webinar event emerges as a sub-section of National Voices’ larger programme of work commissioned by NHSE/I, working alongside six VCSE organisations who support members of the community at risk of exclusion. During this event we will be joined by Michael MacLennan of covid:aid, Claire Hastie of Long Covid Support, Sammie Mcfarland of Long Covid Kids, and Davine Forde, a Lived Experience Associate from Manchester Health & Care Commissioning. They will engage in a panel discussion, sharing the lived experiences of those with Long Covid and shining a light on the crucial work that community-based organisations are doing to alleviate the burden on health services in response to Long Covid. Rachel Matthews, our Head of Experience, and Keymn Whervin, our Lived Experience Associate, will also examine the impact of implementing strategic co-production in working with lived experience leaders, uncovered through their Voices for Improvement project at National Voices. Discussions will be followed by a Q&A session with questions invited from attendees. Register -
EventuntilThis webinar from the Westminster Health Forum focuses on the ongoing research into the long-lasting effects of COVID-19 and the priorities for coordinating effective care provision and treatment. The conference follows NICE guidance being published on managing the long term effects of COVID, and NHS England setting up long COVID assessment centres across the country. Key areas for discussion include: progress of research so far and priority focus areas going forward the development of guidance for long COVID improving patient awareness, supporting self-management and the importance of patient-centred care delivery the role of long COVID assessment centres and early lessons from their development supporting primary care in responding effectively to long COVID, integrated working and priorities for the use of multidisciplinary teams in assessment and rehabilitation. Register
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EventThe Chronic Long Covid19 support group presents this international conference for patients. Presenters: Dr David Tuller, Global Public Health Expert, University of Berkeley, California: graded exercise therapy/cognitive behavior therapy treatment approach to ME and why it should not be used for long-covid patients. Nikita Alexandrov biochemist/biohacker, University of Alabama, USA: COVID-19 and the elephants in the room – big misconceptions and important out of the box observations made so far. Secondary infections: why there is no real cytokine storm concern and the issue of mast cell activation. Book your place
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Content ArticleThe UK’s current strategy is outlined in its “Living with Covid-19” plan, which has three key pillars: vaccines, testing and treatment. In April 2022, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change undertook a critical analysis of this plan: what worked well, what didn’t, and what needed to change to manage Covid more effectively, and to protect society and the economy. The recommendations were incremental steps amounting to a responsible and proactive strategy. Unfortunately, as we see from the recent rapid rise in cases – most involving people who are being infected for the first time – as well as from the increasing hospitalisations and the rise in deaths, the strategy shows what living with Covid means in reality. To support the government, this paper sets out immediate and practical measures to safely guide the country through the latest Covid wave and to outline the longer-term shifts that will better prepare it for public-health emergency management in the future – including by restoring trust with the public.
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Content ArticleUK doctors have submitted an open letter to the BMA requesting their commitment to supporting and actively advocating for its members who are living with Long Covid.
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Content ArticleThis article in the Nursing Times Long Covid series discusses how nurses are at high occupational risk of Long Covid and how best to support them.
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Content ArticleThis blog by doctors Clare Rayner and Amali Lokugamage argues that Long Covid rehabilitation needs a wider focus that goes beyond a purely biomedical paradigm to include complementary therapies and methods. The authors—who have both lived with Long Covid for more than two years—argue that although patients were the first to raise concerns about Long Covid, describe its symptoms and patterns and even research the condition, their narratives and voices are not being included in approaches to treatment. While the biomedical evidence surrounding Long Covid is currently limited, they highlight that there is much valuable lived-experience to be found in patient support and campaign groups, and that patients' knowledge should be drawn on to shape policy and guidance about the condition.
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Content ArticleDr Harsha Master, Dr Ashish Chaudhry, Dr Nicholas Gall, Dr Louise Newson, Dr Sarah Glynne, and Dr Paul Glynne present their experiences of diagnosing, managing, and referring patients with long COVID and associated conditions. Read this article to learn more about: the definition, prevalence, and symptoms of long COVID exclusion of alternative diagnoses, and identification of red-flag symptoms the authors’ experiences of managing long COVID and its complications.
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Content ArticlePoster from World Physiotherapy for World Physiotherapy Day 2021 highlighting the symptoms of Long Covid similar to ME/chronic fatigue syndrome which can worsen with exertion.
