Long Covid

Dean Russell Excerpts

Thursday 14th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dean Russell (Watford) (Con)]

I am pleased to pay tribute to the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) for securing this debate on such an important topic.

I am a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, and over the past year we have heard lots of evidence from lots of areas of the NHS—from social care, patients and staff—about the challenges that they have stood up to in the face of covid and the issues that have been raised. Throughout the year, I have seen a constant change in the landscape and the battles that we are having to fight, and a constant process of relearning what we thought we knew about this terrible virus. Long covid is part of that ongoing story, as we continue to learn about it and to fight the challenges that it will bring.

The Government and the NHS must be thanked in many ways for the work that they have done to set up 60 specialist centres for long covid and for putting in place the five-point plan, but, of course, there is always more to do. The repercussions of coronavirus will be with us not only until we are all vaccinated, and not only until we all deal with this over the next few years and start to get back together again; they will be with us for years.

There are unknowns—things that we will not know until we face them in the future. Long covid is one of the challenges that we will face and learn more about as the months—and, sadly, the years—go on. Similarly, we are facing challenges around mental health, and in that respect we are learning more not just about ourselves, but about society and how we support each other. I pay tribute to the Minister for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Ms Dorries), for the incredible work that she and the Government are doing to tackle the challenges around mental health, and in this area.

I say to everybody out there: let us work together on this. We have to make sure that we are sharing the stories of the challenges, because we do not yet know whether some of the health challenges that we might be facing ourselves are due to long covid. It might be affecting our families, but they might not be sharing their stories.

Let us make sure that we learn from this excellent debate and all the wonderful words that have been spoken. My message to everybody out there, including Members, is this: “Please share the challenges you are facing. Speak to your GP and your family and share those stories, because you might be one of many silent people out there. Together, combined, your voice is so much greater than on its own, and you can save lives and change lives as we move into the future.”