Long Covid clinics across the country are closing their doors, leaving desperate patients without vital treatment and feeling ‘abandoned’, they have claimed.
Meike Leonard, Daily Mail
Extracts
Dedicated clinics set up to support long Covid patients in Surrey, Croydon, Hertfordshire and Lanarkshire have been shuttered, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
A service in Devon will close in the New Year, patients have told this newspaper, and we have learned that clinics in Frimley may also be facing the axe.
Now, campaigners and doctors speaking to this newspaper say this winding down of long Covid provisions will have a devastating impact on the millions suffering from the condition.
NHS Funding
Long Covid campaigners say the closures are due to funding issues and the fact that fewer people are seeking care from them.
Originally run by NHS England, responsibility for the clinics was handed to integrated care boards (ICBs) – the 42 bodies in England which allocate funding to local health services – earlier this year.
In Scotland, 14 NHS Boards have a similar role. Support groups say that since this shift, patients and staff have reported closures and a scaling back of services.