Labour’s health spokesperson Jackie Baillie and Jenni Minto Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health in the Scottish Parliament.
By Bill Heaney
Where has all the money gone? That was Dame Jackie Baillie’s question in the Scottish Parliament this week in relation to long covid.
The Dumbarton MSP said: “The Scottish Government has promised £10 million over the course of three years for the treatment of long Covid.
“In contrast, however, NHS England has dedicated £224 million to support the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of people with the condition, £90 million of which was allocated last year. That would have produced £21.7 million in Barnett consequentials for Scotland.
“Will the minister tell us where the missing money that her Government has received has gone? Will she allocate any additional funding to long Covid services in the upcoming budget?”
The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, Jenni Minto, replied: “There is no missing money. The Scottish Government allocates NHS funding as appropriate to the needs of Scotland.
“Given that no single service model would fit all areas of Scotland, we are giving NHS boards the flexibility to design and deliver the best models of care tailored to the specific needs of their local populations.
“National health service boards are providing support for people with long Covid across local primary care teams and community-based rehabilitation centres and through referral for investigation in secondary care settings, where clinically appropriate.
“We are making £3 million available from our £10 million long Covid support fund in the course of this financial year.”
The Minister told Fulton MacGregor MSP that within his constituency in Lanarkshire a funding stream is supporting the operation of a Covid rehabilitation pathway.
She added: “People can access the pathway following referral by their health or care professional, and it is supported by a specialist team of professionals including dieticians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and psychological practitioners.”
However, Fulton MacGregor (SNP) replied: “I have raised the plight of my constituent Jonathan McMullen in the chamber on a couple of occasions. Jonathan has been suffering from long Covid since he contracted the virus at the age of 14 in March 2020.
“His mother Tracy has worked tirelessly for her son, but the family has recently resorted to seeking private healthcare for his chronic fatigue and postural tachycardia syndrome, which he was diagnosed with post infection.
“It feels as though we need to do more to help patients who have long Covid. What more can the Scottish Government do to understand long Covid and ensure that people who develop conditions such as Jonathan’s are effectively diagnosed and treated in the NHS?”
Jenni Minto said: “The national long Covid strategic network has developed a recommended pathway for the assessment and management of PoTS for use by NHS boards, as well as an educational webinar for healthcare staff across Scotland who are supporting people living with long Covid.
“We are working hard to implement our neurological care and support framework for 2020-25, with its vision of ensuring that everyone with a neurological condition, including people with ME, or chronic fatigue syndrome, can access the care and support that they need.”
SNP MEP Ben Macpherson claimed that increasingly there is evidence of links between long Covid and ME, a disease that a number of my constituents and others feel has been neglected for decades.
He added: “On behalf of my constituents with ME and long Covid-related ME, I ask the minister to provide an update on specific actions that the Government plans to take to implement the 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence—or NICE—guidelines on ME in Scotland, including specialist services. When will that happen?”
Jenni Minto said she recognises the importance of supporting people with ME/CFS – “We inserted the key recommendations from the 2021 NICE guidelines on the condition into the Scottish good practice statement on ME/CFS, which was published on the Scottish Government’s website in February.”