NHS services for the 2 million Britons who have been battling Covid for a long time are “sadly inadequate” given how many people are being diagnosed with the disease, nurses’ leaders have warned.
There are too few specialized clinics to meet the growing demand for treatment, with only a small number of patients receiving help, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said.
The National Bureau of Statistics estimated last week that the number of people in the UK suffering from continued symptoms of Covid, such as fatigue, muscle aches and respiratory problems, has doubled in one year, from 1 million in May 2021 to 2 million last month.
The NHS has responded to the growing number of long-term Covid patients by setting up clinics to assess, diagnose and treat them and refer them to other services, such as cardiology departments for those with heart problems.
But the RCN stated that “existing services are unfortunately inadequate to meet the level of demand.” Warning about a “postal lottery in access to care, he has also expressed concern that” diagnosis and treatment vary widely in the UK, with Covid long treated as a fitness condition in some clinics , but predominantly as a psychological condition in others “.
While England already had 89 long Covid clinics last July, Northern Ireland has only one, and Wales and Scotland have yet to create the first.
“With more than 2 million patients, there are not enough specialized services to meet the growing demand, and the help patients receive varies widely across the country,” said Helen Donovan, head of public health. RCN.
“Of the 2 million people who self-report Covid for a long time, only a fraction know or access available treatment. In April, only a small fraction of patients, 4,500, were waiting for an evaluation at a long Covid clinic in England”.
Donovan added that nurses should be much more involved in providing care to long-term Covid patients, given their experience in managing long-term conditions such as cancer and diabetes. Clinics are usually run by respiratory doctors who are assisted by physiotherapists and sometimes occupational therapists and psychologists, he said.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said: “Around 2 million people in the UK live with a long Covid and yet the government still fails to understand “It presents the enormous challenge of this condition to the livelihoods of the people, the economy and our public services.”
The Guardian has contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for a response.
Meanwhile, about half of people with long Covid may be affected by sleep disorders, according to the data.
Cinthya Pena Orbea of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, analyzed data from 962 patients attending the center’s reCOVer clinic, which provides care for people with chronic or new symptoms of Covid at least 28 days after diagnosis. February 2021 and April 2022. Of these individuals, 8% reported severe sleep disorders while 41% reported moderate sleep disorders.
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People with higher body mass index (BMI) and anxiety were more likely to be affected, while black patients were three times more likely to experience moderate to severe sleep disturbances, even after adjusting. to demographics. The findings were presented at the Sleep 2022 meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.
An independent study published in Brain Science in April found that 51% of those who went to a long Covid clinic in Texas reported sleep disturbances and that poor sleep quality was associated with an increase. of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
Neither study could unravel whether anxiety contributed to people’s sleep problems, or vice versa, or whether other symptoms, such as pain, were the source of their sleep problems. “Future work should follow patients to examine whether the symptoms of sleep, fatigue, and mental health recur spontaneously over time,” said Sara Nowakowski of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who led the research in Texas. .
A Health Department spokesman said: “Long Covid is a new challenge for healthcare systems around the world and the UK is leading the way in research, treatment and care.”
They added: “We are supporting our world-leading scientists with more than £ 50 million to better understand the long-term debilitating effects of Covid, and the NHS is committed to £ 224 million to support people with Covid symptoms in progress, with more than 90 specialist clinics all over England.