Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 19 May 2022
I ask the member to forgive me—I do not know if I have the figure for children. I will have a look at that, and come back to him; perhaps we will address that in closing the debate. We know that the most reliable surveys on long Covid tell us that more than 155,000 people in Scotland are suffering from it, but we can probably do more on data gathering.
I have said to Long Covid Kids, and I say to Alex Cole-Hamilton, that with regard to any good ideas that come forward in relation to education and educational settings, this Government will seek to not only progress but, where appropriate, resource them.
With regard to our actions and interventions as a Government, I want to put to bed any suggestion at all—although I am sure that such a suggestion would not be made in the chamber—that our hard-working national health service and social care staff are not currently helping to care for people with long Covid. That notion is simply untrue, and my thanks go to every single doctor, nurse, allied health professional, social care worker, member of third sector staff and the many others who have been working tirelessly to support those who are suffering from the long-term effects of Covid.
For example, the Thistle Foundation is delivering its remote self-management programme, with a specific focus on supporting people with long Covid. That initiative has received £60,000 from the self-management fund, which is administered by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.
Calum Kennedy talked about his experience of using the service, saying that,
“Thanks to the incredible support ... received from Thistle”,
he now has
“confidence that at some point in the future”
he
“will be able to make a full recovery.”
Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, which is also supported by funding from the Scottish Government, is delivering a long Covid support service. The service enables people to receive advice from nurses who are trained in managing common long Covid symptoms, such as breathlessness and fatigue. Almost 1,500 people have accessed the service since it was established, and 85 per cent of respondents to an evaluation exercise “strongly agreed” that they felt supported to look after their health and wellbeing.
NHS Inform has a dedicated website for people with on-going symptoms after coronavirus, which sets out key information and sources of support. In addition, all our NHS boards have been delivering support to people with long Covid through providing access to local services that are relevant to addressing people’s symptoms and needs.
As just one example, NHS Lanarkshire’s primary care occupational therapy service has supported people with long Covid to address issues that affect their day-to-day quality of life, including by helping them manage pain and fatigue and supporting a return to employment. One person who accessed the service described her local occupational therapist as being “an amazing help” in her journey.
However, I am equally clear that I have heard from too many sufferers of long Covid that they do not feel that they have had a consistent level of support or care, and that concerns me greatly. It presents challenges for those who are living with persisting symptoms and who, quite understandably, are desperate for an answer on how long their symptoms can be expected to last and what the underlying mechanism is that is causing them. Frankly, it also presents challenges for our health and care staff, who are supporting people living with a new condition for which the chapter in the medical textbook is—I say this in all earnestness—still to be written.
I share the deep sense of frustration of people who are living with long Covid that, although there might be approaches and treatments for managing some symptoms, according to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, there is
“a lack of evidence for pharmacological interventions to treat”
long Covid. That is why, of course, some of the funding that we are bringing forward is for further research into the condition.