£4.5 million a year to address long-term health effects
New year-on-year investment in specialist services will help address long-term effects caused by COVID-19 and other similar health conditions.
The Scottish Government is allocating £4.5 million to health boards this year and in future years on a recurring basis, to recruit skilled staff and develop sustainable services. Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and similar conditions will also be eligible for referral.
Services could include managing fatigue or breathlessness, physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
During a visit to services at the Astley Ainslie Hospital in Edinburgh, Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “I recognise the significant impact which the symptoms of long COVID and ME/CFS can have on those most severely affected. I want to ensure these patients are listened to and receive appropriate assessments and referrals.
“Being able to meet professionals involved in Astley Ainslie Hospital’s existing long COVID service, I am heartened to hear first-hand how our funding so far has allowed people living with the condition to be given advice and support to improve their quality of life.
“Recurring funding will enable health boards to develop new support on a sustainable basis and help the retention and recruitment of the skilled members of staff required for the delivery of these services.”
Director of Allied Health Professions at NHS Lothian, Dr Heather Cameron, welcomed the recurring funding and added: “In Lothian, we are taking a holistic approach to supporting people with long-term health conditions such as ME, CFS and Long Covid.
“Our clinical teams work collaboratively across a range of services, including medical, psychology, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy, to provide care and support people to better manage their condition and improve their quality of life.
“This funding is vitally important, and it means that we are able to further develop our services in the longer term to ensure that established care pathways are available when people need it most.”
I have experienced poor care in England and Scotland. Once they determine there’s no clinical urgency you are sent home to live with it. This resulted in the loss of my career after I gave up the struggle. As I age, I’m experiencing new neurological and rheumatological symptoms. I believe this to be progression of an untreated condition. We wait a year to see once specialist who rules out their easy targets then wait another year to try another specialist, same outcome.
I’ve been offered antidepressants and psychotherapy.
The NHS works in isolated specialisms but many chronic conditions are systemic. NHS does not have the capability to deal with that. Just full of one trick poneys
Agree funding for long term research and treatment is of more importance. My son was referred to AstleyAinslie for M.E. and while the staff were wonderful and the grounds lovely, the only obvious outcome was the positivity for him of speaking to someone who fully understood his condition. Luckily our now retired GP did a battery of tests to confirm the diagnosis of exclusion, and educated himself on the condition in order to support us through annual home visits for blood tests and to offer flu vaccinations. The insistence on psychology treatment (“he’s sick because you’re a single parent and that’s stressful”!!) and physiotherapy home visits (“you have to do these exercises every day and build up tolerance”!!) could have been extremely damaging if I hadn’t been very well read on the condition and fully supportive of my son’s feedback over imposed unspecialised care.
Offering emotional/mental support services to chronically ill, and educating on *pacing* and healthful *nutrition* I think is the best that can be offered, alongside practical life care to assist with domestic daily requirements. Nutrition and holistic care is highly overlooked in Western medicine, but it can make a world of difference with M.E., and just about any other health issues! Dietary changes helped immensely with my son’s M.E. twisted brain fog malaise and digestive issues for example. And many supplements have been proven to help reduce symptoms; such as magnesium, berberine, luteolin, nettle, vits d, c, rhodiola rosacea, etc.
I have at least 2 of the names including FMS (fibromyalgia )The problem is not services -a good GP can help just as much. But research is badly needed Nobody really knows what causes the different disabilities. There is no pathology for it as far as I know nor a simple test to confirm what we have. The confirmation of the disabilities is done by trial x error nearly-excluding what we do not have!!So funding for real long term research!!