Cork gets clinic for long Covid

A Cork consultant in infectious disease has confirmed the establishment of long Covid and post-acute Covid clinics in Cork.

Consultant in infectious diseases at CUH and Mercy University Hospital Dr Arthur Jackson gave a presentation on long Covid at Thursday’s Regional Health Forum at Cork County Hall during which he confirmed Cork is being funded for a long Covid and a post-acute Covid service.

Dr Jackson said that long Covid clinics are a concept that the HSE is delivering for people whose symptoms have been ongoing for longer than 12 weeks, so they can seek some expert input from a multidisciplinary onsite team.

He said that while these clinics are in the process of being formally developed, the service is being informally delivered at the moment, with over 100 Long Covid patients seen by Dr Jackson out of the Mercy clinic since about this time last year.

“So we’re delivering it without the robust structure and systems that we will have down the line but at the moment we are planning for a robust and integrated system,” he said.

He said since September 2021 there has been a major focus on the development of these clinics at HSE level.

“Cork is part of a network of these long Covid clinics and we have expectations and plans to be very much part of an integrated network of research because we need to follow international research but also be part of this. I think that’s very important,” he said.

Dr Jackson said that at the moment there is not a defined long Covid clinic or clinical staffing or resourcing in place but that a clinical site on the Lee Road has been authorised and that multidisciplinary posts are approved in principle but not yet hired.

He said that these are active discussions on a weekly basis and that plans are moving quite rapidly for full implementation from June to December.