To receive a presentation on long covid, its affects and the impact on residents in RBWM.

Reporting officers:

Dr Karen Redman - GP Specialist

Jolene Eddowes - Specialist Occupational Therapist

Dr Karen Redman, GP Specialist, and Jolene Eddowes, Specialist Occupational Therapist, gave some context on Long Covid to the Board. Long Covid could affect anyone and was defined as the continuous development of new symptoms after an initial Covid infection, which lasted for at least two months with no other plausible explanation. There were a number of symptoms from Long Covid, with over 200 different ones being reported nationally. Fatigue and shortness of breath were the most common symptoms.

Around 1.9 million people were currently living with Long Covid, while 1.5 million were living with adversely affected daily activities. There were 90 specialist adult clinics in England which had been set up to look into Long Covid and its long term affects. The mean age for those suffering with Long Covid was 48 years, almost 70% were female, with a similar number being of working age. Symptoms could have an impact on employment and this included changing roles, reduced hours or even being on sick leave as a result. The highest number of those affected were people who had worked in the healthcare system or adult social care.

The Long Covid service had been set up to meet the needs of the unique patient group, with multiple pathways to provide a holistic person-centred journey. Data on symptoms and cases were registered in system insights and could be used to identify how many cases of Long Covid had been recorded, but this was reliant on GPs identifying symptoms as Long Covid. The guidelines were currently under review and the NHS were currently awaiting next year’s funding. A significant amount of data on Long Covid had been gathered over the past couple of years to inform practise.

Councillor Werner mentioned Myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome, and the link which had been found between various viruses. He asked if Long Covid was a form of post viral rehabilitation and whether considering this comparison was useful when using what was already known about ME.

Karen Redman explained that experts felt that they should be kept separate. However, there had been a school of thought that research was still in the early stages so it could not be ruled out. There were around 3,000 studies each quarter but there was no good evidence for Long Covid and what treatments there were that could help it going forward. Chronic fatigue had a negatively about it as it was longstanding. Long Covid patients were recovering over time and being provided with support on how to cope with the symptoms.

Councillor Price commented on the impact on the individual, on society and on the council. It was noted that Long Covid affected approximately 2.5% of national population and this would therefore affect a good number of local residents. Councillor Price felt that there was not much information about Long Covid available, for example telling people what help was in place. The council wanted to improve the local economy but employers are unable to find staff due to issues with Long Covid symptoms. Many individuals had not sought help as they had just dealt with the symptoms, more publicity was needed to ensure that residents knew there was support available.

The Chair suggested that the communications around Long Covid could be reviewed, this would need to be clear on the support available particularly after the government funding for the service finished.

Huw Thomas, Place based Clinical Lead for Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, said that the symptoms reported from Long Covid were non-specific. He noted that those in the healthcare profession and other public sector workers were overrepresented in the figures, he questioned whether this was because they were on the ‘Covid frontline’ at the height of the pandemic. Huw Thomas asked if the data had been gathered pre-vaccine and whether there had been less cases of Long Covid reported since the vaccine programme had been rolled out across the country. Huw Thomas considered the outcomes after clinics discharged patients and whether a discharge was made once there were no symptoms or whether patients were taught to live with symptoms.

Karen Redman responded by saying that the Long Covid recovery website had a lot of information about Long Covid. It was hard to know whether the vaccine had made a difference to the number of cases of Long Covid, as referrals were still being received. The advice was to get vaccinated to prevent Covid and the symptoms of Long Covid.

Huw Thomas added that the public should be encouraged to get both their flu and Covid booster vaccines as winter approached.

Karen Redman reported that there had been some cases where patients felt their symptoms of Long Covid had got worse after vaccination but it should be noted that there was no evidence to support this.

Councillor Taylor mentioned that there was a higher percentage of Long Covid patients that were overweight and living in deprivation, she asked that when they had been discharged were they being signposted to other sources of information or help.

It was confirmed that signposting was provided if this was something that the patient was interested in.

The Chair said that some of the symptoms could be caused by other things, for example the menopause. She asked if clinics were screening to check for other causes of symptoms.

Karen Redman confirmed that screening was done to try and confirm what was causing the symptoms and whether a Long Covid diagnosis could be made.

The Chair believed that there was a good service being offered and it would be a shame to see that stopped. On behalf of the Board, she requested that this service continued to be funded. The Chair suggested that resources on Long Covid could be collated and communicated out to residents effectively.

ACTION – Karen Redman and Jolene Eddowes to collate Long Covid resources and support and submit this to the RBWM Communications team to be shared out to residents.