"A very well run clinic"

I attended the Post Covid-19 Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme at the Mid Ulster Hospital Magherafelt

It was a very well run clinic, all staff extremely helpful and encouraging, wide range of talks on covid and long covid, rehabilitation, healthy eating and exercise.

I found the programme to be very helpful in my recovery from long covid and I was very fortunate to have been able to attend a second clinic after failing to complete the first due to taking a relapse in symptoms!

What would I have changed!!!

I would have started the clinic on the first day with a meaningful talk from a Respiratory consultant who could have answered the attendees with more in-depth answers about covid, long covid and recovery/possible recovery and treatments available at that time. 

I feel the Respiratory Physio running the clinic-they were exceptional- but red tape needs removed so they can refer patients onto other disciplines such as cardiology, dietetics, community physio, occupation therapy, ENT or can refer patients for further physio, scans, X-rays, bloods. This process would speed up a patients recovery from long covid and reduce the whole debacle of having to be referred back to your GP or referring consultant, waiting weeks/months on appointments, just cut out the middle man and get things moving faster!!

I would increase the clinics from 6 weeks to 12 weeks as I found around the 6 week mark you were only really starting to get into the feel of the clinic, while attending the clinic any exercises that were shown from that week and previous weeks you continued to do as you wanted to show the staff at the clinic you were doing your exercising at home but after the 6 weeks those home exercise routines become less and less and you revert back to previous ways as you have nothing to keep you encouraged!

I also feel there should be a call back service to the clinics after 3 months, 6 months and a year to see and document your progress and then leave it up to the staff who have brought you this far to make a decision about discharging you. 6 weeks is definitely not long enough to make a decision about anyone with long covid and their recovery, the 6 week clinic/program should be the initial tester to see where your at and to test your exercise tolerance, concentration and to set up a plan to continue with your after care, then the next 6 weeks should be focussed on getting you moving and pushing you so you know what your limitations are!

I feel the Post Covid-19 Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme needs its own staffing attached to that programme, example would be to have the clinics twice a week in the mornings, in the afternoon the staff should be free to be able to do all their documentation and referrals to the other disciplines, on the other three days the staff should be available to attend the patients in their own homes to assess them, doing clinics and seeing how someone manages at home are totally different, I feel the staff need to get the real picture of the long covid patient not just seeing, assessing and exercising two mornings a week but to see the difference around the home, they could also give advice to patients as to what they think would be suitable and unsuitable for their home to aid a faster recovery!!

I think to have a stand alone, dedicated Post Covid-19 Pulmonary rehab team would be beneficial and reduce time, money and dependency on resources in the NHS plus it gives the long covid patient the feeling of security, encouragement and knowing that there is someone there for them in all times of need!

I also feel that long covid patients need a dedicated service where they can get in touch with someone outside normal working hours, we feel we are very much left to our own devices after attending the clinic or after discharge, we need a telephone system like macmillan or the Samaritans where if your worried about the sudden onset of a symptom or symptoms then you can contact that hotline for advice, in the past I have had to contact the GP, the out of hours and ED because I was worried about becoming unwell again when all I needed was reassurance from someone that this chest pain isn’t a heart attack or this shortness of breath isn’t covid again, this in turn would reduce much unneeded calls and attendance at those already overstretched services!

The program I attended at the mid ulster hospital magherafelt was a very informative, helpful and friendly program and I hope that it can be maintained and continued to help more long covid patients in the future as I really would highly recommend it!