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.
Long Covid is a global public health problem affecting millions of people to varying degrees. In March 2023, the Office for National Statistics estimated that 1.9 million people were living with Long Covid in the UK. A website to support people living with Long Covid is available, set up by a research team led by Professor Nisreen Alwan, Professor of Public Health at the University of Southampton, who has led the development of the online tool using research she and colleagues have conducted into the stigma and barriers to seeking care for Long Covid.
The online tool offers a symptom checker, advice on seeking support, and encourages people to talk about their symptoms with professionals, friends and family. You can see it here long-covid-care.org.uk
Healthwatch Havering are continuing to work with Public Health Havering, the Havering North Primary Care Network (PCN) and the NELFT Long COVID clinic to learn more about Havering residents' 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.
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) have published research on the support people with long COVID need to return to work. They are calling for employers to recognise that some staff with long COVID could be considered disabled under the Equality Act (where long COVID has, or is likely to have, a substantial and long-term negative effect on an individual’s ability to undertake normal daily activities), and urge them to make workplace adjustments and flexible support where necessary to help employees return to and stay in work.
