Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) research his Department has commissioned on and (b) what medical advice is available for people suffering post-covid-19 illnesses.

The Department invests over £1 billion a year in health and care research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It is not usual practice for the NIHR to ring-fence a proportion of its budget for research into particular topics or conditions. The NIHR Recovery and Learning Call is currently open to researchers to submit research proposals on patients suffering post-COVID-19 illnesses.

The NIHR Recovery and Learning Call will fund research to better understand and manage the health and social care consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic beyond the acute phase. The research will focus specifically on health outcomes, public health, social care and health service delivery and to mitigate the impact of subsequent phases and aftermath.