Long Covid: Robin Swann hopes to secure £2m for sufferers

An estimated one in ten people who contract Covid-19 will still have symptoms three months later.

The health minister said he was hoping to secure around £2m to fund long Covid services in Northern Ireland.

Robin Swann said the money would help deliver proposals from the Health and Social Care Board.

The board will look at how to help people suffering from the effects of Covid-19 months after contracting the virus.

An estimated one in ten people who contract the virus will still have symptoms months later.

Long Covid - or Post Covid-19 Syndrome - is the name given to describe a range of symptoms still experienced by people more than 12 weeks after they had coronavirus.

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Mr Swann said the health board recently submitted proposals to the Department of Health for multi-disciplinary services and he asked his officials to consider them "urgently".

Any bid for funding would be subject to approval by the Executive, he added.

Robin Swann said the money could fund long Covid services for two years

Mr Swann updated the Assembly in response to a question from the Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan.

He said: "What we're looking at is that multi-disciplinary approach, so there will be physiotherapists, primary care and secondary care as well.

"In regards to the costed proposals that have come forward to myself, they're not insignificant to establish this.

"We're looking possibly at this year and next year in the region of £2million to supply this service."

The Department of Health confirmed to BBC News NI that this would fund services up until the end of March 2023 if approved.

Mr Swann also told the Assembly that his counterparts in Scotland and Wales wee not following England's approach in establishing specialist long Covid clinics. Instead, he said, Scotland was developing community-based services while Wales had identified a need for a multi-disciplinary rehabilitation service.

Dr Caitriona Dynan doesn't believe £2m over two years is enough

Dr Caitriona Dynan, a radiologist at Antrim Area Hospital, developed a condition, which can cause dizziness, known as Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS), after being ill with coronavirus in March last year.

She told the BBC's Evening Extra programme that she does not believe £2m over two years is enough.

She said: "Even though it sounds like a huge figure, it is minimal compared to the amount of people who already have long Covid now.

"My concern is it would go to the wrong places, not through wrong intentions, but I've seen it happen in England.

"There's an attitude that exercise will cure all but the majority of long Covid patients have found that exercise, particularly in the first eight months, makes you deteriorate. I'm only recently able to slowly start to do it. Pacing is important.

"The money would be best spent on investigations for PoTS because there's not one single person who's in charge of PoTS in Northern Ireland and there could be a massive number of people suffering from that from now on."

She added: "They will need cardiac investigation and someone with respiratory. What we don't need is a whole lot of clinics set up where it's purely physio orientated.

"They need a multi-disciplinary approach so it does need to be a long Covid clinic rather than just an outreach physio clinic set up. Physio is very helpful but not on its own and not pushing exercise."