Dr. Colm Henry:

It is a good point and "long Covid" is the appropriate term. We call it post-Covid syndrome for those in the early stage of post-acute illness and long Covid for those with symptoms that last longer than 12 weeks. Our knowledge of this is increasing all the time. Of course, when we were living through the pandemic, we needed to devise a model of care first. The model of care we designed at that time, in consultation with the programmes and clinical leads, involved looking at the whole spectrum of illness including self-awareness, self-management, communication with GPs and specialist pathways for those who developed specific symptoms. There tended to be constellations of symptoms around respiratory problems, some neurological problems, fatigue and so on. We established a number of specialist centres. Not all of them are up and running. There are some staffing issues with some of them but Ms O'Connor has just told me that six more posts have just been approved and recruitment is under way. At least three of those centres are now up and running.

As to the Chairman's question on reviewing the model of care and adapting it to what we now know, if more knowledge comes through as people's experience with long Covid progresses and if they develop other symptoms that were not highlighted at the beginning, we will, of course, adapt the specialty centres and the expert input to address whatever needs come to light. The early impression was one of predominantly physical symptoms along with some neurological and psychological symptoms. We largely worked with the respiratory and infectious disease communities in designing these specialist centres that we refer patients to. As I have said, not all of them are up and running.