Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton Constituency, has called on the Scottish Government to provide specialist support and care for individuals who are suffering from the long term effects of COVID-19 – a condition which has been coined ‘long Covid’.

During a session of Health Portfolio Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Jackie Baillie spoke on behalf of constituents who are still suffering from the knock-on effects of COVID-19, many months after they had contracted the virus. Baillie spoke of a constituent who suffers from a number of debilitating symptoms including fatigue, breathlessness, headaches, sore eyes, blood pooling in her lower extremities and tachycardia. Individuals have been unable to return to work and find even the most basic of daily tasks extremely tiring.

The Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has not yet opened specialist clinics which specifically treat ‘long Covid’. In response to a letter from Jackie Baillie to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the health board said that GPs could refer patients to specialists of the individual effects but there were no current plans to open a clinic which allows for targeted care to be given to all the symptoms collectively.

Jackie Baillie MSP said:

“The effects of ‘long Covid’ are extensive and each requires a different specialist opinion and course of treatment. If ‘long Covid’ sufferers had to go to a specialist to address each symptom that they had, they would spend their lives traipsing from one clinic to the next.

“It makes complete sense to open Scotland-wide ‘long Covid’ clinics which act as a one-stop-shop for all the effects of long term COVID-19.

“I urge the Scottish Government to act fast and create specialist clinics so that sufferers in my constituency, and across Scotland, receive the care that they desperately need.”