Scotland's long Covid patients would be better off moving to England for help - Alex Cole-Hamilton

There are two words, used in tandem, that until last week I had never encountered before. Now I’ve heard them, they inspire panic in me.

England is far ahead in treating the devastating symptoms of long Covid and action must be taken now north of the border, says Alex Cole- Hamilton MSP.

Those words are ‘air hunger’ and they represent just one of the horrific symptoms attached to the condition we now know as ‘long Covid’.

Last week I met a constituent who is just one of the tens of thousands of Scots suffering long Covid, many months after getting the virus. His symptoms are typical of the long-term condition and they are utterly debilitating. He described his own experience with air-hunger to me in detail. It’s a feeling of being unable to adequately inflate his lungs, to the point of gasping; it sounds like being slowly suffocated.

It’s by no means the only physical affect he’s been left with. He suffers with gastrointestinal issues, severe muscle wastage and crushing fatigue that can see him struggle with the simplest of tasks. Because nobody had ever heard of long Covid before last year, no one can tell him when or if he’ll start to get better. All he and those like him have been offered by the Scottish Government is a charity advice line, links to some information on the internet and what support his overstretched GP can offer. I’m sorry, but that’s just not good enough.

The TUC recently described long Covid as possibly the biggest disabling event since World War One and it’s not hard to see why. Tens of thousands of Scots are already suffering debilitating symptoms of the condition already and that number is only set to rise as patients recover from the Delta variant and we begin to relax the public health restrictions. Yet Scotland is well behind the curve in terms of helping sufferers.

Indeed, it’s an indictment of the Scottish Government that sufferers here would be better off moving to England given the differential in support available across the UK. South of the border, they can at least take advantage of a ground-breaking care pathway and make use of dedicated long Covid community hubs, which offer access to physio and rehab.

So, I’m calling on the Scottish Government to introduce a long Covid action plan, right now, that might offer some relief to sufferers. Such a plan needs to include specialist community long Covid clinics, the training of long Covid community nurses to offer support at home and countrywide access to long Covid physiotherapy and multi-disciplinary rehabilitation.

A policy of no financial loss for public sector workers who are absent for long periods of time due to long Covid is also desirable.

While our clinicians and scientists continue to come to terms with this awful condition and add to the serious body of evidence already gathered, we need to offer sufferers a degree of hope and a belief that they matter to Scottish Ministers and the officials that support them. That starts by meeting their immediate needs and understanding the long-term adaptations they may be forced to make to their lives.

While we might finally be coming out of the worst of the pandemic, it is vital that we now recognise the plight of those who may be fighting Covid-19 for years to come.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is the Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh Western

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