Scottish GPs need more training on long Covid ‘as a matter of urgency’ as allocated time for training has been lost due to the mounting pressures of the NHS, according to a Covid-19 Recovery Committee report.
The committee has strongly recommended the Scottish Government works with training bodies as a matter of urgency ‘to develop and implement its education strategy in relation to the awareness and recognition of long Covid within the medical profession’.
The report said: ‘Many patients are still encountering GPs who are not aware of long Covid. The committee is disappointed by the lack of progress in this area, particularly bearing in mind the length of time since long Covid first emerged as a disease.’
The committee heard from long Covid patients they are often passed ‘from pillar to post and there is no single point of access’.
This is despite the then cabinet secretary saying practitioners having protected learning time for CPD was ‘absolutely pivotal’.
RCGP Scotland also argued that long Covid should be managed within general practice.
The committee concluded the National Strategic Network’s education strategy aimed at raising awareness of long Covid among medical professionals had ‘not been fully effective’.
But health boards said a key challenge in setting up long Covid services related to workforce and capacity issues, and funding under spends.
Ever heard of ‘Prevention is better than cure’?
There is going to be a huge lot more long covid, (and other long-term sequelae), as acute and asymptomatic infections continue to multiply completely unchecked by Health Security Agency.
No point blaming the GPs though, th einfections are the fault of the Government and IPC; and there is no clear beneficial treatment for GPs to offer.
Perhaps they should just refer everyone to an appropriate Long Covid specialist Clinic. It is a special illness with many complicated consequences, and is definitely ‘new work’ for GPs, so I think it could be resisted as non-urgent; it is definitely not urgent, it was not only expected, but actually planned by the Johnson Government, who wanted everyone to ‘Eat out to catch it sooner’, so GPs should not have to mop up after them.
Why are you so fixated on something which is not very prevalent, not very curable and not really meant to be assessed by primary care anyway.
Learn about lyme disease which is prevalent in Scotland and nobody every tests for it.
Look to what has happened and is happening in your patients. Folk with long Covid generally have had two Oxford vaccinations, or three and the disease (later omicron variants). I am not getting into vaccine side effects and long term influence of uncontrolled spike antigen release from cells taken over by mRNA vaccines, but there have been suggestions that Long Covid, particularly brain fog, has been caused by micro-clots persisting in the blood stream. Recent communication with people by me suffering from alleged long Covid suggest low dose aspirin relieves the brain fog, restores physical well being and reintroduces previous bodily performance stats. Aspirin 75mg, presumed action, dissolution of clots, risks to clients taking dose, small. Test, in a small number of patients, show aspirin improves brain fog, stoppage reintroduces the problem, restart solves it. Noted in myself, and a strongman that I know, now lifting 170kg on 75mg Aspirin, and one other. Consider this therapy, what have you to lose? Contraindications previous Aspirin sensitivity or allergy, bleeding upper GI conditions, childhood with chance of Reyes syndrome. This could be a gamechanger for Long Covid. And a lead in to the debate on best ways to handle future pandemics.