Long Covid: Condition's 'serious' effects recognised

The "serious and potentially debilitating" impact of long Covid on health is being recognised in Wales, the new health minister has said.

Eluned Morgan said she was putting a £5m recovery programme in place to help patients living with the condition.

GPs will be issued with new guidance and diagnostic tools, with treatment and rehabilitation "pathways".

Ms Morgan said she wanted to ensure people could get specialist hospital treatment, if needed.

"It's about making sure there is clear guidance at GP level to make sure they understand what's going on," she said.

"There will be pathway for more serious and complex cases - when they access hospital care that there's an understanding complex cases will be dealt with in a wholehearted way - taking into account the different issues.

"Because that's part of the problem - everybody suffers from long Covid in a slightly different way."

There is no medical definition or list of symptoms shared by all patients - two people with long Covid can have very different experiences, according to NHS Wales.

However, the most common feature is crippling fatigue.

Others symptoms include breathlessness, a cough that will not go away, joint pain, muscle aches, hearing and eyesight problems, headaches, loss of smell and taste as well as damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys and gut.

Mental health problems have been reported, including depression, anxiety and struggling to think clearly.

But the programme being announced on Tuesday does not commit the Welsh government to establishing specialist central long Covid centres or hubs, as in England, despite calls to implement the measure.

Ms Morgan said the approach in Wales was based on the principle of helping people "as close to home" as possible.

"That's why it's critical we make that support available in GP surgeries and we've given huge support to online provision to allow people to self-support," she added.

The recovery programme will be reviewed every six months, to take into account the latest global research on what is a new, but potentially very serious condition.

Grandmother Helen James already had underlying health worries when she caught Covid, not just once, but twice.

Both times she was ill for about four weeks, and developed pneumonia both times.

She was left "fighting for every breath".

Helen, from Pontypool in Torfaen, now has extensive scarring on her lungs and needs to use steroid inhalers and other drugs.

Kidney issues she had under control before Covid now need a new regime of medicines.

"Fatigue is the biggest issue because it stops you living your life," she said.

"You know I couldn't ever plan anything. Sometimes I have to just stay in bed."

Some days, she said she did not "have the strength to even get to the bathroom, or even to have a shower".

Helen called for a "joined up" consultant-led approach for long Covid patients, and has told the minister personally in a meeting.

"I'm fighting this to the end. I'm not giving up," she added.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Wales have had Covid-19 and research suggests as many as 10% might experience longer-term effects.

In May, the Office for National Statistics estimated that one million people across the UK living in private households had self-reported long Covid, with symptoms that have lasted more than four weeks after the initial infection.

This included 50,000 people in Wales.

The new recovery programme has been welcomed by the Royal College of GPs in Wales.

Joint chairman Prof Peter Saul said: "The condition has required us all to learn and adapt quickly to support our patients.

"Primary care is at the forefront of long Covid care and this announcement will provide confidence that we will have the infrastructure, shared knowledge and data for GPs and their teams across Wales to respond to patients' needs."