Long Covid

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Thursday 14th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I am sure all colleagues will have noticed that we have a relatively short amount of time for two debates this afternoon. This one will run for approximately one hour and 20 minutes, to divide the time equally, and there is a three-minute limit on Back-Bench contributions. I am sorry about that, but time is very pressured.

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[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP) [V]]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) on securing this afternoon’s debate. For the past three years, I have been involved with individuals living with myalgic encephalomyelitis, a post-viral condition triggered by a virus such as flu or, in some cases, severe acute respiratory syndrome. Knowledge of post-viral conditions, particularly with regards to activity management, is essential for the many people now living with long covid. As early as January last year, some people expressed concerns that this mysterious new coronavirus could produce similar post-viral effects. However, the sheer numbers affected by long covid is a serious health challenge.

In addition to listening to and—crucially—believing and supporting people with long covid, health professionals should be providing guidance on symptom management. I am pleased to see that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence moved quickly to provide guidelines for long covid, and thankfully it has cautioned against the use of graded exercise therapy. It is surprising to find a guideline recommending exercise testing. Exercise testing in people who may have an undetected cardiac pathology clearly carries a risk. In addition, the NICE guideline contains no specific guidance on the management of any of the common symptoms of long covid. That is a serious omission that requires urgent attention.

Advice on symptom management cannot be left to charities and support groups. Instead, we should be looking at how that can be delivered in primary care, with the help of, for example, properly trained community physiotherapists. There is a need for health professionals, employers and wider society to recognise that recovery from a virus takes time. Employers must identify tasks that individuals can continue to carry out, and that might be in a different setting from what they are used to doing. The Government must ensure that there is proper financial support for those affected. It may be that these people take months or even years until they start seeing improvements in their health, and we must make sure that the support system can be just that during these times.

Today, we had a study by Public Health England that shows that those who have had covid will have immunity for about five months post-infection. Those who are living with post-viral conditions such as long covid or, indeed, ME, should therefore be considered vulnerable beyond the five months and prioritised for vaccine. Finally, it has taken decades of campaigning, largely due to the lack of belief—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

Order. I am afraid I have to thank the hon. Lady for her speech. We need to move on, because not everybody will be able to get into this debate.

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[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

I begin by thanking the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) for her superb opening to the debate and for her leadership of the all-party group.

My experience with covid began in early March, when I started to feel grotty and run down. I just wanted to rest, but as a precaution I phoned NHS 111, which suggested to me that it could not possibly be covid because no cases had been reported in M34, even though I explained to them that I worked in hotspot SW1. Eventually, typical covid symptoms developed, so I spent the next fortnight in self-isolation. The illness lasted for about 12 days, by the end of which the country was in lockdown 1, but the reality is that, although the coronavirus passed, the effects are still with me today.

Thankfully, research is now being carried out and the Government recognise long covid as being real. That has been a battle. I was lucky: my GP is brilliant, and from an early stage recognised my condition—long before it had the name “long covid”. My condition is not as severe as it was even just a few months ago. There have been real improvements, but it has been a hard slog to get here. For the first seven months or so, the exhaustion came back frequently and to the point where just doing simple tasks around the House brought me out in massive sweats as if I had run the London marathon. I had lots of dizzy spells; I have never had vertigo before this. And oh, the brain fog! In a job where we have to be razor sharp, my short-term memory is shot to pieces. I have had to learn to pace myself. Trying to push my limits would set me back. I still have to remind myself not to overdo it.

The lasting symptom is still the brain fog. When it is bad, taking in information and processing it is so difficult. It is physically and mentally tiring, often triggering headaches, dizziness and vertigo. I am fortunate in having been able to balance work with my disabilities. Virtual participation and proxy votes have helped. I talk about the difficulties of doing my job, but what about the mechanic, the builder, the emergency worker, the teacher, the nurse—people who do not have the luxury of virtual participation, aides-mémoire, and an efficient and brilliant office to hide deficiencies? They are left to struggle and make the most of it, or to lose their jobs. On that point, the Department for Work and Pensions has to do more to recognise the condition for work capability assessments and other interviews.

I am so grateful to some of the representatives from long covid support groups for meeting me earlier this week. They want the Government to acknowledge that children can also get long covid. Of course children often present with symptoms different from adults’, so an awareness campaign is required, but children should also have access to treatment in long covid clinics and throughout the NHS.

The problem of long covid is not going away; it is growing as the number of people catching covid grows. I would like to hear from the Minister about a holistic approach, with research, treatment and support in the health sense, but also in the wellbeing sense, the workplace sense and the family sense too. Let us support people and their families—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

Order. I thank the hon. Gentleman for his speech.

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[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab) [V]]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) and the hon. Members for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) and for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter) for securing the debate and the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling it in the Chamber so that all MPs can take part.

The debate is important and timely as we pass the grim milestone of 100,000 covid-19 deaths and well over 3 million confirmed cases. We should remember each of those 100,000 deaths as the human tragedy it is as well as a sign of the failure to control the virus.

Together with colleagues who are taking part in the debate, I have heard evidence of the impact of long covid from witnesses to the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus. The impact on their lives is profound, and their numbers are growing rapidly.

It is important to recognise that covid-19 is not binary, with people either dying or recovering fully. We still have little idea about how covid-19 affects those who survive it in the longer term. Even people who start with mild covid symptoms may end up suffering noticeable effects and developing new or worse symptoms for months.

Among the many issues that witnesses with long covid raised at the APPG, an important factor is where they contracted the disease. Our witnesses this week all worked in the NHS, and we heard that the doctors’ long covid group is expanding rapidly. It is right to ask whether the conditions on the frontline might mean that long covid is more prevalent among those who acquire it at work.

Given the devastating impact of long covid, we need to establish whether it is an occupationally acquired disease. If it is, it should be reported on, monitored and protected against, as any other workplace-acquired disease would be. Will the Minister therefore set out what the Government are doing to require employers, including the NHS, to monitor long covid among their staff, and what steps will be taken to support frontline staff with long covid?

As I said, covid is not a binary disease. It is simply not the case that people either die from it or recover fully. We must remember every covid death as the tragedy that it is, but we must also fully acknowledge and deal with the long-term impacts that the disease can have. People are living with the effects of the virus for months, and perhaps even years. They need our support. They need a health system that can identify long covid and research so that we can begin to treat it effectively. They need financial support if they cannot work.

We need a covid strategy that goes beyond preventing deaths. We need to drive cases down, even when the most vulnerable are vaccinated, so that we do not create a new generation of people living with long-term health conditions. We particularly need to establish covid-19 as an occupational disease and support the frontline staff with long covid who cannot work because of their symptoms. They must not be forgotten.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I am afraid we must now move to our last Back-Bench speaker.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab) [V]]

I thank the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) for arranging this important debate, which I hope will raise awareness of the issue, and cause the Government to reassess the rate of sickness benefit and to invest in research.

Long covid can affect anyone who has caught the virus. It is another one of those invisible illnesses that people cannot see, and many still do not know it exists. Constituents, friends and family have reached out to tell me of their physical and mental struggles with long covid. Persistent breathing problems and coughing, fatigue, dizziness, chest pains and insomnia are some of the things that have been mentioned to me. Even getting a diagnosis has been challenging, with people having to go through all manner of scans and tests. The lack of explanations and solutions has led to support groups being created online, where people with long covid can connect with one another and share their difficulties. But not everyone has online access and not everyone is able to communicate their experiences. Low public awareness of long covid leaves sufferers feeling even more isolated. I would be grateful to hear from the Government how they will raise the profile of this illness.

The NHS is desperate to help these patients, but it needs help from the Government to do this. The Government need to ring-fence funding for research into the illnesses and find treatments. People with long covid also often find their ability to work seriously affected. The economy suffers from this section of the workforce being incapacitated. Sick pay is £95.85 per week. My constituent’s rent in a shared home is £900, with bills, each month they are short of more than £500, and their situation is not dissimilar to that of others, which means that the sickness pay rate is inadequate.

Another constituent asks me:

“How much longer is our society going to keep treating people with illness as a burden? How long are people going to face such hard decisions just to keep living?”.

Although I cannot give my constituent all the answers they need, I, along with colleagues today, call on the Government to recognise this illness, commit to reassessing the sick pay rate, and fund research treatments to cure and help sufferers with long covid.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I realise that a number of colleagues have not been able to get into this debate. As I have said, we had a very short time for it. The Front Benchers have agreed to speak for less time than they normally would, and I now call the Scottish National party spokesperson, Neale Hanvey.

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[Layla Moran [V]]

I thank all Members who have contributed to this debate, but also all those who were unable to contribute. When we put in for it, we thought that it would be well subscribed, given that, I would wager, most Members in this House will have been contacted by a constituent, or more than one constituent, who now has long covid. For all those with long covid who are watching today, I hope they have the assurance that this House will continue to listen and encourage the Government to take action as our understanding of this disease improves.

We certainly heard some powerful stories today. There is obviously not time to go through all of them. I was struck, as we always are, by the contribution from the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne), who brings the subject to life with his own experience but also rightly asks: what about those who do not have the flexible working that is afforded to us as MPs?

Several Members mentioned that there are learnings that we must take from other conditions. In particular, ME was mentioned by the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (Carol Monaghan), among others. I thank her for her work and leadership on the all-party parliamentary group on ME. There is a lot that we can learn from that.

The hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter) rightly raised mental health, and the trauma that people face as a result of being hospitalised with covid. I think that almost all Members mentioned financial support, and many highlighted the failure of the welfare system to cope with this changing landscape. That is an area that we continue to need to push on. My right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) put it very well when he said that the Government need to take a humble approach to the changing picture.

I thank the Front Bench spokespeople, and particularly the Minister for her response and for listening so diligently to the debate. I thank her for the update on the research and the NHS response. It is clear that we are finally getting going, but I hope that she also recognises that we need to continue to finesse and change as our understanding evolves. I hope she will take a personal interest in that. Finally, it would be wonderful if she would consider a meeting with me and others in the all-party group, to talk about the areas that she did not cover, in particular publishing the register, if that is possible, and a recognition by employers that long covid could be an occupational disease, and the support that would be needed by those who suffer from it.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I thank the hon. Lady for winding up the debate, but we now need to move on because we have another full debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered long covid.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

We will now have a two-minute suspension to allow preparation for the next debate.