Long Covid has effected a “significant” number of doctors forcing around 20 per cent to reduce their hours or even give up their job completely, according to a report.
Many are left in financial limbo which is “contributing to the loss of UK health service staff at a time when we can least afford it”, the British Medical Association (BMA) authors warn in the first study of its kind.
Some 600 doctors with long Covid were quizzed about the effects on their day-to-day lives to analyse the long-term effects coronavirus has on medics. Almost one in five (18 per cent) told the BMA and the Long Covid Doctors for Action group they had been forced to stop work or significantly cut back on their hours.
Carrying out essential daily activities such as getting dressed, household activities and childcare have become difficult or not possible for 60 per cent of the medics who took part in the survey.
Nearly half (49 per cent) said they have experienced loss of earnings as a result of long Covid symptoms of which include: fatigue, headaches, muscular pain, nerve damage, joint pain, ongoing respiratory problems.
Ore than half (54 per cent) have been struggling with symptoms since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, with many saying they did not have access to personal protective equipment when they were initially infected.
One GP told the authors: “I can no longer work, finances are ruined. I didn’t have employment protection so am now unemployed and penniless.”
A consultant added: “Life is absolutely miserable. Every day is a struggle. I wake up exhausted, the insomnia and night terrors are horrendous as I live through my worst fears every night.”
Another added: “I am almost housebound, and have had to buy a mobility scooter for the few occasions that I am well enough to get out.”
The BMA has made a series of calls to support doctors with long Covid, including financial support for doctors and other health workers with long Covid, while calling for it to be recognised as an “occupational disease”. The union also wants to see better access to physical and mental health services for those affected after the report said that access to NHS long Covid clinics is “patchy”.
The authors wrote: “Doctors managing the uncertain and sometimes debilitating effects of post-acute Covid, as a result of workplace exposure to Covid-19, cannot be forgotten.”
Professor David Strain, chair of the BMA’s board of science, said: “We know that throughout the pandemic Covid-19 had a profound and often tragic impact on healthcare workers, but now this report and the heart-breaking accounts within it lay bare the debilitating effect that the virus continues to have on those doctors living with long-term symptoms.”
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Long Covid can have a debilitating impact and we are backing our world-leading scientists with over £50m to better understand the long-term effects of this virus and make treatments available.
“NHS staff are able to seek support for long Covid from their GP or one of the 100 specialist clinics available nationwide. The NHS has also committed £324m to support people with ongoing symptoms of long Covid.”
