Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to allocate resources to the Government's rapid, comprehensive study of long covid.

The Department invests £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Together with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the NIHR has invested £8.4 million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID), investigating the long-term health impacts of coronavirus on hospitalised patients. To ensure the best use of National Health Service resources for clinical research during the acute phase of the pandemic, the NIHR established a process to prioritise COVID-19 research as Urgent Public Health Research. The NIHR Clinical Research Network is supporting prioritised studies by fast tracking their local set-up, management and delivery. PHOSP-COVID was prioritised through this process on 1 July 2020.

On 31 July, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care convened a roundtable meeting with researchers and clinicians to establish what more can be done to understand and mitigate the long-term health effects of COVID-19. The Department recognises the need for further research into the longer-term effects of the virus in those who did not require hospitalisation and is currently considering options for future work in this area.