Dr. John Lambert:

I do not know about Canada because I have not done a survey. I am too busy taking care of patients every day in the hospital, among other things. Perhaps the committee could commission somebody to take a look this. I do, however, go over to the UK and I have seen patients with long Covid over in the UK because I am Scotland-based as well as Dublin-based. While the UK was good in putting together long Covid clinics early, they are based on the pulmonary and heart model. I do not believe they have caught up as far as that goes. If the Deputy was to ask, I would say that France is the better model at this time.

Ireland could be the best model if we take on board what we put together, are agile and make the changes we are supposed to based on new science. We need greater GP involvement, more support for the psychiatric and psychological issues of patients and more support of neuropsychiatric issues. In January 2021 it was first identified that the brain was really the focus. Every week I learn more and more about the brain as published in the international medical literature. We need to move some of our resources around and provide guidelines to support GPs to be able to manage these patients.