Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether steps to strengthen care for (a) ME, (b) Long Covid and (c) other infection-associated chronic conditions will be included in plans to bolster the UK’s preparedness for future pandemics.

Ensuring that the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in our approach to pandemic preparedness. We aim to have flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to any infectious disease or other threat, rather than relying on plans for specific threats.

The Government’s response to module one of the COVID-19 inquiry sets out the changes we have made to risk planning and data management to help ensure that we are reducing any disproportionate impacts on any groups or individuals, and targeting support where it can be of best help in civil emergency planning and management. The response is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-government-response-to-the-covid-19-inquiry-module-1-report

The Government is committed to ensuring that there are quality services for people suffering with long COVID in every part of the country. NHS England has invested significantly in supporting people with long COVID. This includes setting up specialist post-COVID-19 services nationwide for adults, and children and young people, developing digital self-management tools, and investing in ensuring that general practice teams are equipped to support people affected by the condition.

The Government has also invested over £57 million into long COVID research. This aims 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.