Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the treatment options available to people with symptoms of long covid.

COVID-19 is a new disease and therefore it is not yet clear what the physical, psychological and rehabilitation needs will be for those experiencing long-term effects of the virus. The Government has provided funding, through the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research Innovation for several research studies. One of these studies, based at the University of Birmingham, is researching therapies for ‘long’ COVID-19 in non-hospitalised patients.

On 18 December, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published a guideline on the management of the long-term effects of COVID-19. As part of developing the guidance, an expert panel undertook an evidence review into pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. The evidence review is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng188/evidence/evidence-review-5-interventions-pdf-8957629261