Naughten critical that just one third of staff recruited for long Covid centres

Just one third of the staff needed to manage patients with long Covid have been recruited to specialist clinics, twelve months after these specific clinics were promised by the Minister for Health, says Deputy Denis Naughten.

“Earlier this month, I received a response from the HSE to a Dáil question to the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, which shows that just 22.5 WTE posts have been filled out of 70 posts needed to operate 14 specialist long Covid centres across the country,” continued Denis Naughten.

Symptoms of long Covid include fatigue and brain fog, which are experienced at least three months after the initial infection for significant periods of time, in some cases over two years.

“With clinics in Letterkenny, Galway, Limerick and Beaumont Hospitals having failed to fill any of the posts allocated by the HSE, and just one of the St James Hospital clinics in Dublin having a full compliment of staff, it is clear that this issue is not getting the priority that it needs,” Denis Naughten pointed out.

“Despite commitments given by the HSE and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to monitor research developments associated with this illness, the long Covid clinics have only altered the medical specialities across all 14 centres to include an additional psychiatrist (a 0.5WTE post allocated to Cork University Hospital and another 0.5WTE post allocated to St. James Hospital, Dublin). This clearly contradicts the growing body of research indicating that the long-term challenge of the condition will be focused on neurological issues.

“A research paper which I commissioned over the summer from the Oireachtas Library & Research Service clearly indicates it is not just cardiac and respiratory issues that long Covid patients are experiencing but many are facing neurological issues as well,” stated Denis Naughten.

“This research is supported in correspondence to me from the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the HSE on the need to recruit neurological consultants to treat people with long Covid.

“Despite the medical research the HSE has only recruited one neurologist based at St James Hospital, Dublin, to manage such issues for long Covid patients throughout the country. And clearly the review of medical specialities across all 14 centres has culumated with the addition of just one full psychiatrist post.

“Based on an analysis that I performed there are 336,451 adults nationally who are likely to be suffering from some of the 200 medical conditions associated with long Covid.

“These figures are based on research published earlier this month in The Lancet by a team of researchers in the Netherlands who have attributed long Covid symptoms to 12.7% of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and research on blood donors published by Ireland’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre, which indicates that 69% of adults in Ireland have been infected by the virus," he continued.

“If even a small proportion of the 336,451 adults with long Covid present at GP surgeries and are referred on for medical tests at our hospitals, it will significantly add to the already record breaking 625,000 outstanding outpatient appointments and will no doubt contribute to the record numbers on trolleys in hospital this month,” concluded the Roscommon TD.