Long Covid: Health Services
(asked on 15th October 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure equitable access to clinics supporting patients with long covid.
Since November 2020, £104 million has been invested by NHS England and NHS Improvement in developing and expanding 90 ‘long’ COVID-19 clinics and an Enhanced Service in general practice, to ensure the most underserved populations are reached. ‘Long COVID: the NHS plan for 2021/22’, published in June 2021, details a requirement to understand how ‘long’ COVID-19 services are meeting the needs of local populations. The plan is available at the the following link:
The Plan also committed £30 million to support an Enhanced Service for general practices. This one-year service will reduce inequity of access, variation in records and enable clinical management in primary care where appropriate. NHS England and NHS Improvement have established a ‘long’ COVID-19 health inequalities workstream on the potential impact of health inequalities and advise on mitigations.