Leading Long Covid clinic in Leeds granted £3.4m to help patients back to work

Leeds University and NHS Community Healthcare Trust has been granted £3.4million to find ways of supporting people with Long Covid back to work. 

The clinic in Leeds has been leading the country in returning people back to health.

The study will aim to create a "gold standard" approach for the treatment of long covid.

Dr Manoj Sivan, a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is jointly leading the project.

He and the rehabilitation team in Leeds developed the first long covid measure called C19-YRS (Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale). This scale is now widely used across the NHS.

Matthew Alan is one of the patients at the clinic and has spent the last year recovering from what was initially a mild Covid infection. 

The 35 year old was referred to the Leeds Long Covid Community rehabilitation service.

"It got to the point where I couldn't get out of bed some days and I had to start using a wheel chair to get around. I had to stop working for a few months and over time it has been a very slow and very gradual recovery."

For patients like Matthew, Long Covid Clinics are fundamental for recovery.

"I feel like I am mixing up words, and that I really need to think about what I am saying to have a conversation, but mostly I am feeling way better than I was before."

What is Long Covid?

Long covid refers to a set of symptoms that persist for longer than four weeks after contracting coronavirus.

Long covid has many symptoms including breathlessness, fatigue, and brain fog.

It has the potential to deepen health inequalities and is having a disproportionate impact on patients with existing health conditions and people from lower income backgrounds.

 Dr  Manoj  Sivan said the patients are complex and cannot be managed in one setting.

"It's not like that, it's a long term condition, it's going to be a health care problem and a big burden for the NHS and the economy because most of the people accessing services are middle aged, functioning well in their jobs and they are struggling to get back to work. "

In Leeds 28 people a week are being referred to the Long Covic clinic service.

It started community based service and people were treated in their homes but demand has increased. The clinic has had 950 referrals since September.