hsi — health strategy institute
research and strategy institute for
in-person health strategy and
digital health strategy
Joaquim Cardoso MSc
Chief Research and Editor — of the The Health Strategy — Portal;
Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) — of the The Health Strategy — Institute (HSI),
Senior Advisor — for Boards and C-Level
July 5, 2023
ONE PAGE SUMMARY
Workforce Impact:
- 18% of doctors with long COVID reported being unable to work.
- Only 31% were working full time, compared to 57% prior to their COVID illness.
- 49% of respondents experienced income loss due to long COVID.
Workplace Exposure and Protective Measures:
- 54% of respondents contracted COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020.
- 77% of these doctors believed they acquired the virus at work.
- Only 11% had access to an FFP2 respirator, and 16% had access to an FFP3 respirator.
Demands and Recommendations:
- Calls for long COVID to be recognized as an occupational disease for healthcare workers.
- Urgent financial support for NHS staff with long COVID.
- Trade Union Congress and Industrial Injuries Advisory Council have previously made similar recommendations.
Symptoms and Treatment Challenges:
- Doctors with long COVID experienced a wide range of symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, pain, and respiratory issues.
- Almost half of doctors had not been referred to an NHS long COVID clinic.
The government’s responsibility and healthcare employers’ actions:
- Lack of protection and support for healthcare staff put at risk during the pandemic.
- Calls for support in returning to work or adequate financial compensation for those unable to work.
NHS Support and Funding:
- NHS offers support for long COVID through GPs and specialist clinics.
- The Department of Health and Social Care has allocated £50m for research on long-term effects and treatment of COVID-19.
- NHS committed £324m to support people with ongoing long COVID symptoms.
DEEP DIVE
BMJ
Adele Water
July 2023
Almost one in five doctors (18%) with long covid who responded to a survey said that they were no longer able to work, and fewer than one in three (31%) were working full time, compared with more than half (57%) before the onset of their covid illness.
Nearly half (49%) of the 603 respondents said that they had lost income as a result of long covid. The survey was conducted by the BMA in partnership with the support group Long Covid Doctors for Action during December 2022 and January 2023.1
Just over half of respondents (54%) acquired covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, and 77% of these thought that they contracted it in the workplace. Only a small minority of doctors had access to respiratory protective equipment around the time that they caught covid-19, with only 11% having access to an FFP2 respirator and 16% to an FFP3 respirator.
The report on the findings comes with a series of demands, among them a call for long covid to be considered an occupational disease for healthcare workers and for NHS staff with long covid to be given financial support. “The UK needs to urgently recognise post-acute covid — and all of its symptoms — as an occupational disease to help doctors and healthcare workers receive the support and financial aid they need,” the report said.
In March, the Trade Union Congress called for long covid to be recognised as an industrial disease,2 and in November 2022 the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, which advises government on which diseases should be classified as work related, recommended that health workers with long covid be able to claim industrial injuries benefit.3
Doctors with long covid reported a wide range of symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, muscular pain, nerve damage, and joint pain, as well as ongoing respiratory problems. But many have faced barriers in accessing treatment, with almost half of doctors not having been referred to an NHS long covid clinic.
Raymond Agius, BMA occupational medicine committee co-chair, said the government had a moral duty to look after healthcare staff who were put at risk throughout the pandemic. “During the covid-19 pandemic, doctors were left exposed and unprotected at work . . . This report underlines the devastating consequences of this lack of protection. Doctors still living with continuing symptoms have once again been left at risk with little to no support from the system that they gave so much to,” he said. “Those well enough to return to work need support in doing so, while those who are still too sick need adequate financial compensation to ensure they are not driven to bankruptcy by an illness they caught in the line of duty.”
Kelly Fearnley, a doctor with long covid and chair of Long Covid Doctors for Action, said she and fellow campaigners felt “betrayed and completely abandoned.” She said, “One would think, given the circumstances under which we fell ill and current workforce shortages, NHS employers would be eager to do everything to facilitate the return to work of people with long covid. However, NHS employers are legally required to implement only ‘reasonable adjustments,’ and so things such as extended phased return or adjustments to shift patterns are not always being facilitated. Instead, an increasing number of employers are choosing to terminate contracts.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said that it was funding £50m of research to better understand the long term effects of covid-19 and how to treat it. “NHS staff are able to seek support for long covid from their GP or one of the 100 specialist clinics available nationwide. The NHS has also committed £324m to support people with ongoing symptoms of long covid.”
References
See original publication
Originally published at
BMJ 2023; 382 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p1529 (Published 04 July 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;382:p1529
