Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I do not believe we treat long Covid with the same degree of seriousness as other countries. We were told this morning about some of the well-established practices that exist in France. I always like to think we would try to follow best practice in this country. We followed best practice when it came to measures to protect our communities in the midst of the pandemic. As a result of that, we are among the lowest numbers in Europe when it comes to people who lost their lives. Anyone who loses their life is one too many, but we still did remarkably well. However, when it comes to looking after people who, whether we like it or not, have a life-changing condition that has fundamentally altered the manner in which they go about their daily lives, we have fallen significantly short. I do not really buy the notion of joining up clinics because they are not busy enough. There are an awful lot more people with long Covid than people realise. I am interested to know what information campaigns the HSE is running to encourage people to consider that if they are suffering from fatigue, it might not be because they are overworked but because they have long Covid.

In terms of practicalities, I would like to know why the HSE has recruited physiotherapists in some long Covid clinics and not in others. It seems unfair that some clinics are better resourced than others. What is the rationale for long Covid patients in only some parts of the country being able to access physiotherapy? People suffering from long Covid may not be in a position to travel as a result of fatigue. Getting a train from the west to Dublin for treatment and then back home could have a detrimental effect on them for a number of weeks. It seems wrong and unfair. It is not equality as we know it, and where people get annoyed is where the urban population base gets superior treatment and supports than people who live in more rural parts of the country. Does the HSE plan to recruit physiotherapists for the long Covid clinics that do not have them? The symptoms of long Covid, in some respects, are similar to the symptoms of people who had Covid. They are tiredness, fatigue, not being able to get up, not having energy and, in many cases, being in pain. We heard striking examples. My colleague, Senator Kyne, spoke about somebody who ran marathons until they got long Covid, and now they can barely get out of bed. Why are these policies urban versus rural? Again, I ask them not to give me an answer saying that they have decided to close or merge a clinic because it is not busy enough. This is a problem, and it is time the HSE faced up to it in a real and meaningful way and not in a "tick the box" way.