Spotlight
Long Covid Awareness Day – Saturday 15 March
On Saturday March 15, International Long Covid Awareness Day will mark five years since the start of the pandemic, aiming to raise awareness of the symptoms of Long Covid and that NHS support is available to those who are living with the condition.
Although most people with Covid feel better within a few days or weeks of their first symptoms and make a full recovery within 12 weeks, for some, symptoms can last longer – this is called Long Covid or post Covid-19 Syndrome.
Symptoms of Long Covid:
The most common symptoms are:
- extreme tiredness (fatigue)
- shortness of breath
- problems with memory and concentration (“brain fog”).
Other symptoms people can experience are:
- chest pain or tightness
- difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
- heart palpitations
- dizziness
- pins and needles
- joint pain
- depression and anxiety
- tinnitus, earache
- feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite
- a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste
- Rashes.
Here is a short film made by our colleagues at Guys & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust outlining how Covid can impact usual routines long after the initial infection with some tips to help guide recovery.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CO10H34Eec[/embed]
Within our trust, we have a specialist multidisciplinary service to support those living with post Covid symptoms. The team is a mainly remote-based service, offering support via video consultation, Teams, or telephone, and on occasion, face to face. The team offers assessment and rehabilitation following GP referral, leads the living well with fatigue groups, offers peer support to those accessing our service, and 1:1 specialist fatigue and respiratory physiotherapy support.
Here are some comments from patients about their journey.
"The service is a beacon & lifeline in a sea of the unknown that is the covid journey."
"I've been supported by the Somerset Long Covid clinic for the last few months. They have been absolutely brilliant! They referred me to various services and I can now say I'm coming out the other side, feeling like a human being again. I had long covid for 17 months, but kept putting off being referred, thinking I'd be alright.....Hmm, that didn't work out. I couldn't sing their praises highly enough."
The service is working in partnership with the Somerset ME/CFS service and is working towards a fully integrated fatigue service with the future aim of a self-referral option.
If you feel you have post Covid symptoms or know someone who may benefit from accessing the service, please see the service's section on the trust website for further resources, and encourage them to reach out to their GP for a referral.