Dr. Siobh?n N? Bhriain:

It is a good question. When we were developing the model of care we had much input from our colleagues in geriatric medicine. That is my own specialty. The Senator is probably aware of the development of the enhanced community care for older persons programme. Many older people who have prolonged symptoms of Covid have other co-morbid conditions. These could include respiratory disease, heart disease and frailty. Those older people, especially those aged over 65 years, are far better dealt with in the enhanced community care geriatric programmes that have a multidisciplinary specialty team available to them, and we are rolling those out around the country. The focus of those enhanced community care programmes for chronic disease in older persons is to provide an outreach-type service and to have it very widely available. For most older people - and again I am speaking from my clinical background here - we generally advise referral to a geriatrician who would have a very wide scope of practice and be well able to manage the co-morbid conditions that may exist with long Covid.

I might ask Dr. Bannan about this. Would it be fair to say we are not having a huge issue with persons aged over 65 years or 85 years presenting to the long Covid clinics, because we have the older persons clinic?