Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect of the long term health consequences of covid-19 on the NHS.

The National Health Service and the wider scientific community are currently working to better understand the disease course of the COVID-19 virus including symptom severity and duration, long term effects and how best to support recovery.

The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have invested £8.4 million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID), led by Christopher Brightling at the University of Leicester. This study is one of the world’s largest comprehensive research studies into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19 on hospitalised patients.

The research currently underway will inform future NHS service design and provision.