To ask the Minister of Health how funding will be used in the 2024-25 financial year to support those with long Covid.

Funding of £1.9m will be used in the 2024-25 financial year to continue to provide the services that have been established in all 5 HSC Trusts to support adults living with this condition:

Strand 1 - Post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) patients referred by primary or secondary care to a one-stop-shop MDT assessment service

Patients can be referred to the MDT assessment clinic from primary and secondary care. Patients receive an holistic assessment to include:

identifying patients with breathlessness who may benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation; and,

those who may need onward referral to secondary or community services and/or signposting to self-management resources.

Strand 2: - Bespoke pulmonary rehabilitation / dysfunctional breathing service for patients with significant respiratory symptoms post-COVID-19

The purpose of this strand is to put in place timely, effective arrangements for outpatient rehabilitation following COVID-19 resulting in significant respiratory symptoms.

Strand 3 - Patients discharged from critical care (both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19)

The purpose of this strand is to put in place timely, effective arrangements for the follow-up and assessment of people discharged from critical care (both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19), reflecting the known risk of long-term sequelae following a long stay in critical care.

Strand 4 - Strengthening psychology support to all Trusts

The psychological impact of COVID-19 (depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, traumatic bereavement, psychosis, risk to self and/or others) is recognised in extant national guidance. Each Trust has been supported to recruit an additional senior psychologist, with their main role supporting strand 3, but also providing advice to staff working in strands 1 and 2.

Strand 5 - Regional MDT clinical physiology, SLT and dietetic support

Selected patients may need diagnostic tests by respiratory clinical physiologists, onward referral for dietetic and speech and language therapy (SLT) from the one-stop-shop MDT assessment service, the critical care follow-up and pulmonary rehabilitation strands.

Strand 6 - Signposting and access to self-management resources

Patients in NI can access self-management resources which include the NHS App Your Covid Recovery (Managing The Effects | Your COVID Recovery)

In line with clinical advice from paediatric specialists in Northern Ireland, children who have not reached their 16th birthday and who have persistent symptoms after a diagnosis of COVID, and who require more specialist care, can be referred to Trust paediatric services in the usual way to receive appropriate assessment and treatment in line with their individual clinical needs.