Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

A campaign on my.uplift.ieseeks to fund long Covid multidisciplinary clinics. It was initiated by Miriam Cullen, who is in the Public Gallery with other long Covid patients. I thank Deputy Naughten and the Regional Group for using Private Members' time to discuss this serious issue.

The current HSE plan for long Covid medical support is inadequate. It proposes only eight post-acute Covid clinics nationwide for newly diagnosed people for the first 12 weeks. Should a person need continued care, there will only be six long Covid clinics nationwide for sufferers to attend. One of the problems with the proposed care plan is that if a person is newly diagnosed in County Donegal, he or she may attend a post Covid clinic for 12 weeks in Letterkenny, but should further care be needed, he or she would go on a waiting list, with thousands of other people, for the nearest long Covid clinics, which will be in Galway and Dublin. This problem is mirrored throughout Ireland and I ask people to sign the petition.

This is a serious situation that can no longer be tolerated. We have to get our heads around what is happening in communities, involving thousands of people. It is likely that in excess of 336,000 adults are suffering with long Covid every day. This figure is based on the extrapolation of research based in the Netherlands published in The Lancetin August 2022, which attributed long Covid to 12.7% of patients infected with the virus..

The fact that long Covid services do not exist for children is scandalous. It is a disgrace that the clinic in the Mater hospital, which treats neurological conditions such as brain fog associated with long Covid, has been forced to reduce its services due to a lack of funding. It is important that there is an electronic patient register. We have to know how many people have long Covid in order to provide the care that is needed. There are other points I wanted to make but I only had two minutes.

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