Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure the availability of multi-disciplinary medical treatment for 16 and 17 year old patients with long covid who cannot access paediatric services and have been refused access to long covid clinics.

National commissioning guidance published by NHS England and NHS Improvement details services which should be available to support people of all ages with a likely diagnosis of post-COVID syndrome. This is regardless of whether they received a positive COVID-19 test or were managed in hospital or the community. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/national-guidance-for-post-covid-syndrome-assessment-clinics/

In general, young people aged 16 and 17 years old should access adult post-COVID specialist services. There are a small number of localities where access for this group is through the specialist paediatric hubs, which will accept direct referrals.