Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to support people who have long covid.

NHS England has invested £314 million to expand National Health Service long COVID treatment and rehabilitation services, establishing 100 long COVID services for adults, and 13 specialist paediatric hubs for children and young people. These assess people with long COVID and direct them into appropriate care pathways, which provide appropriate support and treatment. Commissioning of post-COVID-19 services will transition from the long COVID national programme to integrated care boards by the end of March 2024. Funding for long COVID services in 2024/25 is expected to be allocated based on the current, 2023/24 distribution.

The Government has invested over £50 million into long COVID research. The projects aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, and to evaluate clinical care.