Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) funding from the public purse he plans to allocate to and (b) support he plans to provide to GPs to manage potential increases in demand for their services as a result of the health effects of long-term covid-19 symptoms.

The National Health Service and the wider scientific community are currently working to better understand the disease course of COVID-19 infection, including the prevalence, severity and duration of symptoms, 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.

The NHS is working to expand access to COVID-19 rehabilitation treatments for those who have survived the virus but still have problems with breathing, mental health problems or other longer-term complications. As part of this, in July the NHS launched the ‘Your COVID Recovery’ service, a personalised programme to support the recovery of people who have been in hospital or suffered at home with the virus. The research currently underway will continue to inform future NHS service design and provision.