Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to GPs to help (a) identify and (b) support people displaying signs of long term covid-19 related symptoms.

NHS England and NHS Improvement published guidance for general practitioners on the after-care needs of in-patients recovering from COVID-19 on 25 June 2020 at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/06/C0388-after-care-needs-of-inpatients-recovering-from-covid-19-5-june-2020-1.pdf

On 5 July the new ‘Your COVID Recovery’ service was announced. This forms part of National Health Service plans to expand access to COVID-19 rehabilitation treatments for those who have survived the virus but still have problems with breathing, mental health problems or other complications.

By guaranteeing financial support and temporarily reducing the current Quality Outcome Framework requirements, NHS England and NHS Improvement are also releasing capacity in general practice to focus on COVID-19 recovery, and so supporting those patients most in need of long-term condition management support.