Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals of the difficulties experienced by people suffering from post covid-19 side effects.

In June 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement published guidance supporting primary care and community health services to meet the immediate and longer-term care needs of patients discharged following an acute episode of COVID-19. This guidance will be kept under regular review.

The National Health Service and 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 outputs of that research will continue to inform future NHS service design and provision.