Long Covid patients are forgotten, ex-GP says
BBC/Richard MossA doctor whose career was ended by long Covid said living victims of the virus were being forgotten by politicians and the NHS.
Susannah Thompson, 46 and from Blyth in Northumberland, contracted the virus in 2020 while treating Covid-19 patients, and within a year was using a wheelchair having had multiple medical problems.
Her comments come as the NHS in the North East and Cumbria prepares to close its last dedicated long Covid clinics this month, something opposed by patients and described by one local Labour MP as "shocking."
The former GP said: "I struggle to have a conversation. I've lost my thinking ability and short-term memory. I think that's one of the hardest things."
The mother-of-two said she had an active lifestyle before contracting the virus, but now had to manage her energy each day just to do basic tasks.
She has a heart condition and has suffered acute pain, skin and breathing problems, as well as mental confusion, all of which has left her unable to work.
Patients like Thompson are being told to use services across a range of specialisms, according to their symptoms.
'Refer to appropriate specialists'
"It's like having the worst flu and being hung over all at the same time," she said.
"Every day I make the decision to get out of bed and to make the best of everything I can whilst feeling rubbish."
Official figures last collected in 2023 estimated 94,000 people in the North East had long Covid, with 64,000 experiencing symptoms for more than a year. The region had the highest proportion of people with the condition.
Six years on from the pandemic, Thompson said there were "hundreds of thousands of people" in the UK with significant long Covid who could not work and were "not acknowledged".
"I never thought I'd be someone who'd need to claim benefits. I was a doctor, I was going to be working, and I can't and that's devastating," she said.
A spokesperson for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board said demand for long Covid clinics had reduced over time and patients' needs had changed.
"With that in mind, we are moving away from long Covid clinics and instead letting each person's treatment be guided by their symptoms so they are referred to the most appropriate specialist for their needs," the spokesperson said.
But North Durham MP Luke Akehurst joined a cross-party group in parliament which campaigns on long Covid after one of his constituents complained to him about the closure of the clinic in the county.
He told BBC's Politics North: "Services that were there, instead of being enhanced, are being run down. I find that shocking and want to do as much as I can in parliament to raise the need for proper care."
He urged the Integrated Care Board to rethink their "misguided" decision.
Dr Margaret O'Hara, from the pressure group Long Covid Support, said: "We feel really strongly that's it's just being swept under the carpet now. There's a real attitude of see no Covid, hear no Covid.
"We are being left in some kind of void."
BBC/Richard MossDr Rae Duncan, a consultant cardiologist and internationally renowned long Covid researcher said: "Covid isn't over. We'd love it to be, and the messaging might sound like it is, but it's not gone and it's still causing long Covid.
"A lot of the patient community are feeling left behind and stuck in this nightmare when everyone else is moving on.
"We have lots of drugs that we think will help, but we can't roll them out until we've tested them and made sure they're safe and effective in clinical treatment trials. To do that, we need funding."
A government spokesperson said local integrated care boards should support people with long Covid and patients should be referred by GPs to "alternative existing services based on clinical need".
"No single treatment currently exists for this often-debilitating condition, which is why we have funded research into it, including clinical trials to test and compare different treatments," they said.
