Post COVID Syndrome (Long COVID)...
The precise causes of Post COVID Syndrome (Long COVID) are not yet known and the recovery time varies for each individual. A report in 2022 by the Institute of Fiscal Studies estimated that the aggregate impact of the current prevalence and severity of the syndrome at national level was equivalent to 110,000 workers being off sick (IFS, July 2022). Evidence from other Healthwatch reports (Healthwatch Barnet and Healthwatch Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge, both 2022) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN, 2022) indicates that treatment varies across the country, with long waits for specialist provision and disagreement about referral structures common.
Healthwatch Havering have continued to work with Public Health Havering, the Havering North Primary Care Network (PCN) and the NELFT Long COVID clinic to learn more about people's experiences of living with Long COVID and the support that they may have received since our last report.
Following two earlier surveys of local people who are living with Long COVID, in May we ran four Focus Group sessions with local people living with Long COVID to find out about their experiences in greater depth, including:
- their symptoms
- how they found dealing with healthcare professionals and
- what support they felt they needed.
The Focus Group session findings are now available in two volumes: Volume 1 is the report of the findings, and Volume 2 is a full transcript of the four Focus Group sessions.
