Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the treatment of long covid in the NHS.

Since 2020, the National Health Service in England has invested significantly in supporting people with long COVID. This includes setting up specialist post-COVID services nationwide for adults, and children and young people, as well as investing in ensuring general practice (GP) teams are equipped to support people affected by the condition.

As of 1 April 2024, there are over 90 adult post-COVID services across England, along with an additional 10 children and young people’s hubs. These services assess people with long COVID and direct them into care pathways which provide appropriate support and treatment. GPs will assess patients that have COVID-19 symptoms lasting longer than four weeks, and refer them into a long COVID service where appropriate. Referral should be via a single point of access, which is managed by clinician-led triage.

The Government has invested £58 million in research through two specific funding calls to better understand long COVID and how to treat it. The projects funded aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care. The NHS and scientific community are working at pace to progress long COVID research.