The number of people with long covid who get a successful referral to specialist clinics in England has fallen slightly, according to the first national figures on how healthcare capacity for the most debilitating cases is changing.
There are an in the UK today with long covid symptoms severe enough to limit their daily activities, up by around 10 per cent . Some people fear numbers will rise further in winter as people mix more inside, stretching the capacity of the . The other three UK nations have none.
Claire Hastie, who sits on the NHS England Long COVID Taskforce and set up the , says she has 鈥渕assive鈥� concerns over a new wave of long covid cases in coming months, including in children. 鈥淚t鈥檚 horrific what鈥檚 going on in schools,鈥� she says, because a lack of mitigation measures and vaccination means a high risk of infection for children, and potentially long covid.
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show that 4846 people were successfully referred to a long covid clinic in August, a 3.6 per cent fall on the . Melissa Heightman, who runs a long covid clinic at University College Hospital, says: 鈥淚n my opinion from the coal face, I think we are in a better place than we have been previously. Our waiting times are now starting to improve.鈥�
A spokesperson for the hospital鈥檚 NHS Foundation Trust says the clinic is now receiving fewer referrals from beyond the five London boroughs it usually supports, which it believes it due to more long covid clinics, and greater capacity at them, across England. 鈥淩eferral rates are reducing but we know there are still a lot of patients waiting for care,鈥� says Heightman, who was recently
Heightman says her focus in the coming months is on making sure long covid clinics don鈥檛 fall prey to emergency pressures if there is another spike in acute covid infections. 鈥淐oncerns going into winter for me are really just about maintaining the post-covid pathways, alongside all the other pressures,鈥� she says. 鈥淲henever there鈥檚 another wave of the pandemic and an increase in in-patient numbers, workforce can be diverted to that need. It鈥檚 just about keeping everything going.鈥�
Hastie sees evidence that things are improving too. Long Covid Support鈥檚 own surveys of patients found 73 per cent of respondents successfully being referred in August, up from .
There is no robust evidence on a treatment for long covid yet, but specialist clinics draw on a multi-disciplinary team, from physios and occupational therapists to doctors and psychologists, to help people manage the physical symptoms and the mental impacts.
The experiences of people seeking care for long covid have been mixed. Polina Sparks, who lives in Greater Manchester, found the referral process slow and found she was 鈥済oing in circles鈥� until she eventually visited a clinic in June 鈥� only to be discharged because its focus was on respiratory problems which didn鈥檛 apply to her symptoms. 鈥淭he impact of that was quite devastating. You wait and you wait to see somebody,鈥� she says. But a visit to a clinic this month was 鈥渕uch more positive鈥�, she says.
Long covid clinic capacity appears to be uneven across England. Many NHS Trusts that run clinics told 快猫短视频 they can take about 20 new patients a week 鈥� these include the Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust and Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust.
However, several have much lower capacity, such as 2 per week at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and 3 per week at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust. Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, by contrast, takes up to 30 per week.
Whether England鈥檚 clinics will have capacity to cope with a winter-driven wave of new long covid cases will depend on how common the condition turns out to be. The UK鈥檚 Office for National Statistics (ONS) has that 11.7 per cent of people describe themselves as having long covid 12 weeks after a confirmed infection. But the proportion of infected people who say their condition is severe enough to curb their activities was lower, at 7.5 per cent.
Crudely, that would imply a single day of UK cases 鈥� 38,520 positive on 12 October 鈥� could lead to nearly 3000 people with activity-limiting long covid. But different ways of measuring long covid yield considerably different estimates of how many people have it. Another ONS approach, asking people if they have experienced any of 12 common symptoms continuously for at least 12 weeks from infection, suggest the figure is 3 per cent. A separate study suggests even lower, at 2.3 per cent, after 12 weeks.
Whatever the true figure, Heightman says the care situation is improving 鈥� not because cases are declining significantly, but because the capacity of long covid clinics is improving across the country. 鈥淭hings are probably still not where we鈥檇 like them to be, but they are hugely better than they were about four months ago,鈥� she says.
