Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of closing Long Covid clinics on patients with Post-Covid syndrome.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services for people with long COVID. ICBs are allocated funding by NHS England to meet local need and priorities, and to improve outcomes.

NHS England has recently completed a long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), stocktake, aiming to provide a nationwide overview of service delivery in commissioning and contracting, assessing access, activity, and outcomes. The findings confirmed the widely recognised challenges of significant variation in care delivery across England and a lack of comprehensive activity data.

Executive NHS England board members were updated on the current provision of long COVID and ME/CFS services, noting those challenges. Discussions considered service prioritisation and potential COVID Inquiry recommendations. It was agreed that long COVID and ME/CFS services are rightly commissioned by ICBs, which have responsibility for ensuring coverage for their population.