Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) support clinically vulnerable patients with underlying respiratory conditions suffering complications from long covid and b) maintain care and treatment for patients with new respiratory multi-morbidity through the vaccination phase of the covid-19 outbreak.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have allocated £10 million to establish post COVID-19 services across England to provide assessment, diagnosis and a treatment pathway for those experiencing ongoing symptoms. Where clinically appropriate patients can access the assessment services remotely. All services are being run in line with safe infection prevention and control environments to ensure they are safe for clinically vulnerable people. A referral to the clinic should not delay treatment of known conditions such as respiratory disease. If an individual is experiencing ongoing or worsening symptoms, they should seek advice from their general practitioner (GP) in the first instance or if an emergency through their local emergency pathways.

In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement have also commissioned the development and of ‘Your COVID Recovery’ - a digital, interactive and tailored recovery programme to provide online rehabilitation for people experiencing ongoing COVID-19 symptoms to manage their recovery at home.

Video consultations are now available in GP practices covering 99% of the population in England. Meanwhile, online consultations, where a patient can contact their GP practice directly via the internet, are available in almost 6,000 practices, covering 90% of the population.