First major survey of doctors with Long Covid reveals debilitating impact on health, life and work, 2023, BMA media team

Trish

Trish

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First major survey of doctors with Long Covid reveals debilitating impact on health, life and work
by BMA media team
Press release from the BMA

Location: UK
Published: Tuesday 4 July 2023

Key findings include:

  • Doctors reported a wide range of symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, muscular pain, nerve damage, joint pain, ongoing respiratory problems and many more.
  • Around 60% of doctors told the BMA that post-acute Covid ill health has impacted on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities on a regular basis;
  • Almost one in five respondents (18%) reported that they were now unable to work due to their post-acute Covid ill-health;
  • Less than one in three (31%) doctors said they were working full-time, compared to more than half (57%) before the onset of their illness;
  • Nearly half (48%) said they have experienced some form of loss of earnings as a result of post-acute Covid;
  • 54% of respondents acquired Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, and 77% of these believed that they contracted Covid -19 in the workplace;
  • A small minority of doctors had access to respiratory protective equipment (RPE) around the time that they contracted Covid-19, with only 11% having access to an FFP2 respirator and 16% an FFP3 respirator;
  • More than 65% of doctors responding said their post-acute Covid symptoms had not been investigated thoroughly and effectively by an NHS long Covid clinic or centre. And almost half of doctors reported not even being referred to an NHS long Covid clinic at all.
more at link.

Survey report
Over-exposed and under-protected: the long-term impact of COVID-19 on doctors
 
Trish said:
More than 65% of doctors responding said their post-acute Covid symptoms had not been investigated thoroughly and effectively by an NHS long Covid clinic or centre. And almost half of doctors reported not even being referred to an NHS long Covid clinic at all.
Click to expand...

And that is from people who are part of the system.

And from the report,

"It has been informed by a UK survey of over 600 doctors suffering from the continuing effects of an infection with COVID-19, as well as wider research of the issues. The survey was undertaken by the BMA in partnership with Long COVID Doctors for Action. This is the first comprehensive survey of doctors with post-acute COVID health complications."

So activist patients are OK so long as they are the right type of patient obviously.

"Treatment for post-acute COVID must also include a focus on mental health. It is not surprising that the combination of issues such as ill-health, reduced ability to work, reduced ability to carry out daily activities and financial difficulties has had a negative emotional and psychological impact on many doctors – over a quarter of responding doctors told the BMA they had been affected in this way. "

Oh, don't worry. There will be a focus on mental health, just not the kind that is obviously hoped for.
 
Why, oh why?
If only ME patient activists had been listened to, and action taken, then patients including doctors with new post viral conditions may well have had treatments.
I wonder what is said to doctors with post acute covid symptoms. Are they told this illness doesn't exist and people with it are mad, as both were said to me?
I wonder if Long Covid Doctors for Action are looking at why there are no treatments for post viral conditions. I hope they are AND that they look towards ME. I wonder what they will conclude about SW and friends.
 
The paper said:
More than 65% of doctors responding said their post-acute Covid symptoms had not been investigated thoroughly and effectively by an NHS long Covid clinic or centre. And almost half of doctors reported not even being referred to an NHS long Covid clinic at all.
Click to expand...
Ironically, the second sentence has no relation to the first one, since it makes almost no difference whether someone has been referred to a clinic or not, they don't do thorough investigations anyway. On purpose. As a long-standing choice. Your wondawful psychosomatic ideology at work.

It's so scandalous that there is this pretense that those Potemkin clinics mean anything, it's basically institutional virtue signaling, pretending to do something while not even bothering to put any effort into it.
 
Sorry for the individuals concerned. All the best to them.

But maybe this is the the kick up the arse the UK branch of the profession needs to understand the problem and actually do something about it.

One thing to be able to smear and dismiss a few patients. Quite another to do it to a huge chunk of your own profession.
 
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