LONG COVID NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2024
Issue number 1
Welcome to our newsletter!
Welcome to our new Long COVID newsletter!
I am Dr Clare Gibbons, Greater Manchester clinical lead for Long COVID, and this newsletter is aimed at keeping you up to date on Long COVID news and developments in the city region.
It is an update for clinicians and other professionals supporting patients living with Long COVID.
If there is any information that you would like us to share about the work you are doing locally or have any feedback or questions about this update don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Latest developments and published documents
The National post COVID team have confirmed funding for post COVID services for 2024/25. We want to begin planning for 2025/2026 to define how our services will be delivered by bringing Greater Manchester services together in a workshop on: Monday 29th April 2024 (adult services). E-mail humera.ahmed@nca.nhs.uk to find out more.
It was Long COVID awareness day on Friday 15th March 2024 we shared social media posts to increase awareness of Long COVID: Click here to view and repost
Updated national commissioning guidance for post COVID services for adults, children, and young people is expected to be shared early 2024. Please refer to the latest commissioning guidance (Version 4, updated 7 December 2023): Read it here
Outcomes measures in current commissioning guidance: Read it here
Supporting occupational health and wellbeing professionals have produced a new guide for managers covering supporting people with Long COVID: Read it here
Training available on Long COVID
The Long COVID Programme at NHS England has developed a training programme aimed at healthcare professionals working within specialist post COVID services for adults: Click here
RCGP learning on long term effects of COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 syndrome: Click here
Research and articles
A National Evaluation of Outcomes in Long COVID Services using Digital PROM Data from the ELAROS Platform
NHS England commissioned members of the LOCOMOTION study team at the University of Leeds and ELAROS digital company to evaluate patient outcomes in a sample of Long COVID services in England. This was conducted using data from the ELAROS Digital Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) C19-YRS platform, from the LOCOMOTION NHS clinical sites and some non-LOCOMOTION centres who signed-up to be part of the evaluation: Read it here
Hearing from the unheard
This research project focuses on the impact of Long COVID in the Black and minority ethnic groups in the UK (HI-COVE). The HI-COVE research project aims is to understand what it is like for people from under-served groups, such as people from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds, to experience Long Covid, click this link to read more: Read it here
Paper on ‘Disparities by social determinants of health: links between Long COVID and cardiovascular disease’: Read it here
Paper on ‘COVID-19 and abnormal uterine bleeding: potential associations and mechanisms’: Read it here Paper on ‘Complement dysregulation is a prevalent and therapeutically amenable feature of long COVID’: Read it here
Sources of information on Long COVID, health talk: Click here
Long COVID research in Greater Manchester - GPs urged to sign-up to free research text messages for patients
GP practices are being asked to support research into long Covid by encouraging patients to register by responding to a text message.
Primary care can simply register for free to give consent for their patients aged 18 and over to be sent an SMS which will invite them to join the programme, which is run by Research for the Future.
Find out more about the initiative, which is in collaboration with IPLATO and register.
Dr Peter Elton, clinical director for the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Networks (GMEC SCNs), which is supporting research, said he was delighted that Greater Manchester had a world-leading research team and he hoped GPs would help increase the number of people registered, which already stands at 8,000.
He added: “If they could treble that number, it will vastly improve their ability to complete much needed research.
“They will be sending out texts to patients asking them to join the register, and with your support, I am sure they will attract many more patients. It would be wonderful if practices could sign up to supporting the project.”
Dr Murugesan Raj, a Greater Manchester GP and clinical lead for the GMEC SCNs’ Respiratory Network, said: “Long Covid is sadly still here and affecting patients.
“Thank you for the tremendous effort you all put in to deal with Covid and then the response to long Covid. We still need to do more research on this, and we seek your support in this.
“The ask of the practice is a consent from you, for the team here leading the research to be able to send texts to your patients for them to join the database. We have already reached 8,000 but to understand this disease well, and to come up with the management options, we will need to treble that number. “
Research for the Future is a National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN) initiative, supported by the NHS. The current programme is co-funded by NHS England via GMEC SCNs, Health Innovation Manchester and NIHR CRN Greater Manchester, and led by Professor Nawar Bakerly, strategic clinical lead for respiratory medicine at the Northern Care Alliance and Greater Manchester clinical lead for long Covid tier 4 services.
The service promotes research opportunities across all health conditions, but has a particular interest in supporting research into long Covid.
Tameside Talks! Podcast with Nawar Bakerly and David Pickthall, explaining more about Long COVID -
Resources NHS Futures and General Links
The National Long COVID Conference is took place on Thursday, 28th March 2024. All slides and notes will be shared on NHS Futures.
We are working to update the Greater Manchester Long COVID page on NHS Futures, please contact humera.ahmed@nca.nhs.uk if you would like to add resources/content on the page.
Please click the following links to review existing resources on NHS Futures:
Northwest Comms that can be shared in your locality: Click here
Sign up to the clinical Post COVID society, free for the first 12 months: Click here
Supporting Long COVID care tool covering symptoms of Long COVID, advice on next steps and getting additional support for those who have Long COVID: Click here
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