David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. The witnesses are all very welcome. They heard the testimony from the first session. The witnesses in earlier are people who are sufferers of long Covid and advocate for patients. Their experience has been slightly, or I would say radically, different from some of what I have heard said here, which is a bit alarming.

I just want to start with the last session we had in October 2022. The previous witnesses reminded us that the HSE at that time said knowledge around long Covid was evolving. It is, so that was a statement of fact. A commitment, however, was given that services would improve and expand. When I asked where the weaknesses were in this regard, they pointed to some improvements among GPs in respect of greater awareness. We also have the long Covid clinics. Some issues raised, though, concerned symptom management not being what it should be, confusion about what this means, not having physical examinations and appointments being performed virtually, for example, as well as blood tests sometimes being taken but sometimes the tests being looked at being four or five months old, which does not make sense to me. The main point being made by those witnesses, however, was that we need a thorough examination of patients. What is Dr. Ní Bhriain's response to this? What diagnostic tools are available to provide a prognosis and to diagnose? What guidelines are in place in the first instance? Those are my first questions and I wish to come back in then with follow-up questions.