Naughten critical of staff recruitment for long Covid services

Just one-third of the staff needed to manage patients with long Covid have been recruited to specialist clinics, a year after such centres were promised by the Minister for Health, Independent TD Denis Naughten has said.

Mr Naughten said HSE figures he received in response to a parliamentary question showed that 22 whole-time equivalent (WTE) posts had been filled out of the 70 needed to operate 14 specialist long Covid centres across the country.

“With clinics in Letterkenny, Galway, Limerick and Beaumont hospitals having failed to fill any of the posts allocated by the HSE, and just one of the St James’s Hospital clinics in Dublin having a full complement of staff, it is clear that this issue is not getting the priority that it needs,” the Roscommon-Galway TD said.

“Despite commitments given by the HSE and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to monitor research developments associated with this illness, the long Covid clinics have only altered the medical specialities across all 14 centres to include an additional psychiatrist.

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“This clearly contradicts the growing body of research indicating that the long-term challenge of the condition will be focused on neurological issues.”

In a letter to Mr Naughten, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the HSE had developed an interim model of care to provide long Covid services nationally.

“This interim model of care is being implemented, building on existing service provision, in addition to establishing new services across GP, community services and acute hospitals, to ensure a national service is in place for all who need it,” he said. “The first priority is to ensure there are long Covid and post-acute Covid clinics operating within each hospital group to ensure a national service.

“Recruitment of the personnel associated with each of the clinics is ongoing and includes consultants in the area of infectious diseases, respiratory medicine, neurology and additional multidisciplinary staff to support the work of these clinics.”

The Minister added that there was a planned tertiary neurocognitive clinic in St James’s Hospital that would be accepting referrals from long Covid clinics around the country.

“The current model of care is an interim one, and services and supports long Covid and current and projected demand for all specialists and services,” Mr Donnelly said.

Prof Jack Lambert, consultant in infectious diseases and associate professor at UCD School of Medicine, said the bigger problem was that the model of care put together by the HSE was “wrong”.

“They put the model of care together based on 2020 [data], that first strain of Covid, Delta, which caused lots of lung problems,” he said.

“That doesn’t exist any more, we’ve got Omicron for the last two years, it’s a different strain that doesn’t cause lung problems. Omicron causes brain damage. They’ve got no centres to manage brain neuro rehabilitation and eight centres to manage post acute pulmonary complications that don’t exist... They shouldn’t be recruiting for those centres at all, they should turn that money over to specialists that could help the patients, which are neurologists.”

In a statement, the HSE said recruitment challenges were not exclusive to long Covid services and there is a global shortage of qualified and experienced staff.

“Though it is acknowledged that the recruitment process takes time, recruitment has commenced at all sites. This includes consultants in the area of infectious diseases, respiratory medicine, neurology, allied health professionals, medical scientists, cardiac and respiratory physiologists and administration staff to support to the work of these clinics,” it said.

The HSE said long Covid clinics are operating Beaumont Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin. It said post-acute hospitals are operating at the Mater and Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown.

“Galway University Hospital, Tallaght University Hospital and St James’s Hospital are operating combined post-acute and long Covid clinics. Patients at Cork University Hospital, Limerick University Hospital and Letterkenny University Hospital are being seen through infectious disease and respiratory clinics.”