Agenda item

Jenny Tomkinson and Sally Hogg gave presentations on Long COVID Services and made the following points:

Sally Hogg

·       Vaccination rates remained the key to tackling this emerging problem

·       The UK Health Security Agency had recently undertaken a rapid evidence review

·       1.7 Million people in the country experienced symptoms experienced self-reported symptoms

·       Applying this to Bristol it meant that about 12,580 people were experiencing symptoms. Most of these would improve without intervention

·       Anyone who had received one or two doses of a vaccine was far less likely to get COVID or Long COVID. Vaccines remained extremely effective protection for the over 60s

Jen Tomlinson

·       Long COVID was increasingly recognised and symptoms included fatigue (51% identified this as the main symptom), shortness of breath and loss of smell and taste

·       There was a 4 week period within which people would present with COVID. If the symptoms continued beyond 12 weeks, this was considered Long COVID

·       Women between 30 and 69 were considered to be more at risk and particularly those in more deprived areas such as teaching and social care

·       There was a mixture of symptoms which had a big impact on people’s lives concerning exercise, not being able to drive and not being able to parent properly – around 200 in total

·       Work had been carried out with the Red Daffodil in the spring of 2021 at a time when the health service did not understand Long COVID

·       The Healthier Together Offer describes what we are doing. SIRONA have a single point of access – there had been 1400 referrals for adults to date with 400 waiting.

·       There remained very few children referrals. This had not yet been properly explored. It was not clear if this was due to a lack of referrals rather than a genuine reduction. It was noted that a lot of people with Long COVID had first caught COVID pre-vaccination

·       Details were provided concerning peer support groups and peer partnerships

·       There was support provided with a psychologist, Health and Social Care staff and direct enhanced funding to help coding

·       A great deal of work was taking place to enable people to manage the condition and self- management in order to individualise what is required

·       A number of these had got COVID again. Whilst some had improved, many had been badly disabled by it

·       All six localities within Bristol had their own set of information

·       Southmead Development Trust were acting as lead to tackle Long COVID

·       Staffing had previously been a problem but this issue was now resolved

·       A grading exercise in fatigue management needed to be considered to address this problem

·       There was a broad church of support, including digital platforms

·       There was currently no evidence that antivirals improved Long COVID.

·       Details of the referrals were shown – there were 15 to 20 referrals from each locality per month

·       Long COVID predominantly affected 35 to 60 year olds and tended to impact more on certain groups such as Health and Social Care staff and teaching staff. 15% of people with Long COVID lived in deprived areas. There remained insufficient information concerning ethnicity in respect of Long COVID

·       Modelling was difficult and there had been variation in the different waves of COVID. The medical impact of COVID waves in relation to cardio vascular issues such as a racing heart. Whilst there had not yet been a drop in number, there was a continuing need to balance clinical need against other need

·       There was a limited capacity of funding of primary care and the yearly provision of funding made it difficult

·       A long COVID webinar had recently been held and had provided information on remedies

In response to questions from Board members, Jen Tomlinson made the following comments:

·       The data indicated that there would continue to be a reasonable need for support. It was important to build knowledge and understanding in his area

·       There was a recovery plan and a partnership process to support people between referral and being seen. There was an attempt to provide more information at the front end

ACTION: that the ICP Locality Partnerships, Healthwatch and Mental Health Trust be provided with an update on Long COVID – Mark Allen