MP demands more help for ‘forgotten’ long Covid victims
AN MP HAS called for more help for long Covid sufferers, who he calls the ‘forgotten victims of the pandemic.’
Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, who has personally been impacted by long Covid, called for more support after new figures revealed there were an estimated 138,000 people in the North West living with it.
The ONS figures show an estimated 1.94 per cent of people in the North West, or over one in 50, were affected, making the North West the region with the second highest proportion of sufferers in England.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, of which Mr Gwynne is a member, is calling on the government to set up a compensation scheme for key workers living with long Covid who have been unable to return to work.
The group is also calling on the government to end the current ‘postcode lottery’ of support for sufferers and ensure all those who need long-term treatment can access it.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said they were doing ‘all they can’ to help sufferers and had opened 70 specialist clinics across the country to improve treatment.
Labour MP Mr Gwynne said: “These figures reveal the devastating impact of long Covid across the North West.
“I have personally suffered with long Covid so I know how debilitating the symptoms can be.
“The government urgently needs to step up support for long Covid patients, who too often have felt like the forgotten victims of this pandemic.
“We need to end the current postcode lottery and make sure people in all areas can access the treatment they need.”
When Mr Gwynne had long Covid he said he felt ‘shot to pieces,’ had dizzy spells, and lost his short term memory.
It is said one in 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus still had symptoms 12 weeks later, while one in five had symptoms for five weeks or more.
Fatigues, coughs and headaches were the most common complaints.
These new figures show there are a total of 1.1 million people living with the condition across the UK.
Some 674,000 people said that long Covid symptoms were adversely affecting their day-to-day activities, while 196,000 reported that their ability to undertake their day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.
Health and social care workers, those aged 35 to 69, females and those living in the most deprived areas were found to be most at risk from suffering with long Covid.
The DHSC said they had invested £8.4 million in the post-hospitalisation Covid19 study (PHOSP-COVID), led by Christopher Brightling at the University of Leicester – one of the largest in the world.
In addition the National
Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has provided £18.5m to fund four research studies funded to better understand.
Last October, NHS England announced they were providing a £10 million investment in their fivepoint plan to support people with long Covid.
As part of this investment, 69 post-Covid-19 assessment services were opened across England to assess people with longterm effects of Covid and direct them to effective treatment pathways.
The assessment services are taking referrals from GPs for people experiencing brain fog, anxiety, depression, breathlessness, fatigue and other debilitating symptoms.
But Mr Gwynne said more still needed to be done.
He said: “There should also be a compensation scheme for key workers with long Covid who have been on the frontline of this pandemic.
“Many NHS and care staff have caught long Covid and some are now so ill they are unable to return to work.
“They mustn’t be abandoned by the government in their time of need.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Covid can have lasting and debilitating impacts on the lives of those affected and we are doing all we can to help, with almost 70 specialist clinics open across the country to improve treatment.
“We are learning more about long Covid all the time and have already invested over £30 million of research funding to support innovative projects.
“On top of that we are also running new £20m call for research on the long term impacts of Covid through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).”