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AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE expert has called for an educational campaign for doctors, employers and businesses to support people with long Covid, after some patients were accused of exaggerating their illness.
Infectious disease consultant at the Mater Hospital, Professor Jack Lambert, said there is a belief among the public and the medical community that long Covid patients are making up their illness.
Lambert said that brain scans of people with long Covid show they have brain inflammation among other symptoms.
The disease expert has also called on the Government to provide more resources and treatment for people suffering from the illness and the variety of symptoms.
Lambert told the Oireachtas health committee that some patients have chronic fatigue syndrome as part of their long Covid.
“So many patients have been told there’s nothing wrong with them and just to exercise more,” he added.
“I think that in some communities, both in the general public and in the medical community, there’s the belief that these patients are making up their illness, if they just try harder and be mindful they’ll get better.
“But the reality is most of the patients I took care of are health care workers who never missed a day of work in their life.
“They never missed a day at work in the ICU. They worked long shifts and here they are coming down with Covid from an infection they caught in the hospital.
“Two years later they’ve done everything they possibly can, including private care to get help and they’re basically told there’s nothing wrong with you, just exercise more, be mindful, and that doesn’t work for this condition.
PET scans, brain scans of long Covid patients from research studies have shown there’s brain inflammation there, patients are not making this up.
“It’s real. It’s all in their head, there’s damage to the brain, and that’s really what the focus should be on.
“There should be an educational campaign for employers, occupational health doctors, businesses, to support these patients because they are not making up the problem.”
Lambert also called on the Government to change its long Covid plan, saying the current one is letting patients down.
“We have known this for 18 months based on accumulated scientific damage that brain damage is the issue with long Covid,” he added.
“We need a new plan and new resources and staffing to support these patients to recover and return to being contributing members of society.”
A study carried out by Lambert on patients with long Covid found they had brain fog, cognitive issues, exhaustion, sleeplessness and psychological issues that they did not have before.
“They also had blood pressure, pulse thermoregulation problems, a kind of dysautonomia, which is abnormal signalling of the vagus nerve.
“You recall the patients with Covid get damage to the nerve one and two, which is smell and taste.”
He said he had “no idea” of the number of people impacted by long Covid in Ireland.
Lambert also said that the Department of Health should publish the number of people who present with long Covid.
He told the committee that about a third of patients have significant symptoms after one year of recovering from Covid-19.
“About 1 to 5% of people are still disabled with long Covid after one year, to the point that they’re not able to function as they were prior to them contracting the infection a year before,” he added.
“I also mentioned that probably everybody in Ireland has got Covid and some of them got it twice. So there’s probably five million people have got Covid and even if 1% of those are at risk for getting long Covid, that’s a large population of people who are being disabled by this virus.”
He added: “I think we have to move around the resources.
“So my ideal programme would be having a centre that has neuro-rehabilitation specialists and neurologists working in a multidisciplinary clinic with infectious disease doctors, a range of psychologists because that’s been a significant problem, and that’s been under resourced in terms of the current plan.”
He has also called for GPs to be trained on how to look after people with long Covid, saying there is a need for a network of local doctors to look after patients in their own area.
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Very sad. I’ve often visited this Camphill community centre and it was a beautiful place for residents to live with land, animals, gardens and buildings. Lots of young Europeans volunteering years of their lives to provide an alternative option for living to people who would otherwise spend their lives in dull institutions having their senses dulled by chemical restraint.
Don’t think transferring it to the HSE will make it any better, with their record on mental health facilities .
I too have visited Camphill Ballytobin, and was really impressed by the interaction between staff and residents. What better way to live for people with disabilities, than being to assist in food production and crafting, and being at one with nature, while being allowed to progress at their own pace. Far better than being locked up in an institution. Let’s hope this isn’t another bureaucratic exercise by Hiqua! The HSE’s past record in looking after those with disabilities, leaves a lot to be desired.
The Camphill model was such a nice one. This is very sad to read indeed.
Hopefully these services can be brought up to an appropriate standard and continue to operate . We need to protect the most vulnerable as are many of the people attending these services .
Staff and managers running these services have a responsibility too plus resources from Government and HSE let’s hope it’s a move for better in relation to the lives of the people using the service.
I just cannot trust this government or the welfare of the disadvantaged it’s responsible for.
Budgets come before welfare. They seem to be able to find reasons to, in this case, stop a well run, people orientated, facility for the disabled, and hand it over to the HSE, an organisation that’s nothing else but a gravy train for the execs and managers.
Only time will tell.
Does anyone know why volunteers are no longer allowed because HSE are taking over? I can’t understand why HIQA keep handing over these centres to the HSE when there is a clear record of HSE running such places into the ground, feel so distressed reading this.
have your say