Clinicians expect upsurge in demand from ‘Long Covid’ patients

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – The Covid-19 clinic at University Hospital Galway (UHG) is expecting significant demand from patients suffering with so-called ‘Long Covid’ as we enter the next phase of the pandemic.

Up to now, the clinic had some Long Covid clients, but was mostly treating post-Covid patients.

These are people who were acutely unwell with Covid, who required hospitalisation, usually with pneumonia, very often needing high-flow oxygen treatment and possibly intensive care.

When they’re out of the acute phase of illness but not quite back to their baseline before they got ill, the clinic follows-up to rehabilitate them in the community.

Now, it’s expecting more and more patients with Long Covid, a very new concept that “can mean different things to different people”, according to Covid Clinic Consultant, David Gallagher.

But the “widely accepted definition is persistence of symptoms twelve weeks after your initial Covid infection”.

The symptoms are different to the initial Covid symptoms and affect people in different ways.

According to Senior Occupational Therapist at the UHG Covid Clinic, Gillian Collins, Long Covid symptoms include brain fog, lacking energy, fatigue all the time, issues of concentration and memory, sometimes shortness of breath and sleep disturbance.

Dr Gallagher admitted that the symptoms are ‘very vague’.

“There are 240 symptoms ascribed to Long Covid – it’s quite a loose bag of symptoms, and they can represent other illnesses. That’s why we think it’s really important we assess Long Covid patients from a multi-disciplinary perspective – medical, occupational therapy and physiotherapy – to make sure there isn’t a different process going on causing the symptoms,” he said.

Elaine Hall, Senior Physiotherapist at the clinic, said there is evidence to suggest that people who had a higher viral load could be more susceptible to experiencing Long Covid symptoms.

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.