Long Covid patients ‘falling through cracks’

Long Covid is affecting patients for months and years after they catch coronavirus, amid concerns about a lack of services to help them. A Geelong clinic is seeing patients travel up to four hours.

Michael Yeo recovering from long Covid at his Jan Juc home. Picture: Brad Fleet

Michael Yeo contracted Covid a year ago, but only recently started to feel better.

In the 11 days he was testing positive, the 54-year-old Jan Juc resident had aches and pains in his muscles and joints, and extreme fatigue, sleeping 16 hours at once.

“In the eight hours I was awake I was still falling asleep or drowsy,” he said.

But even after his Covid tests returned negative results, symptoms continued.

He struggled taking his dogs for a walk for the first time after leaving isolation.

“It felt like I’d just run a marathon,” Mr Yeo said.

“When I got home I was exhausted.”

Brain fog meant he struggled to process information or find the right words to express himself.

Mr Yeo, who works in canine rehabilitation, had to take more than three months off work due to his illness.

His fatigue meant he was unable to drive to Melbourne to visit his elderly father for several months.

“Every time I pushed through I ended up going two steps forward and three steps back,” he said.

Mr Yeo, who has also struggled with insomnia, was referred to the Geelong Long Covid Clinic at the start of this year.

PATIENTS are travelling up to four hours to visit the Geelong Long Covid Clinic, after specialist services at metropolitan hospitals were shut.

Those from far away travel to Geelong and then continue their care with the multidisciplinary community clinic via telehealth, GP Jenny Huang said.

“It’s sad,” Dr Huang said.

Dr Huang said severe cases of long Covid were “extremely debilitating”.

People with long Covid can experience uncomfortable symptoms – like difficulty regulating temperature.

“The heart rate and blood pressure are totally dysregulated, they can get dizzy really easily and can be prone to falls,” Dr Huang said.

The Geelong Long Covid Clinic is led by a team of GPs and specialists.

Dr Huang said support for people with long Covid was lagging behind where it should be, and upskilling in the primary health workforce was needed.

“Every system is stretched,” she said.

“You see patients largely recover, but have minor lingering symptoms.

“It’s a huge change in life.

“I have seen quite a lot of patients are able to recover quite significantly within one year to 18 months.

“But when they have another stressor like a viral infection … they can get knocked back a bit.”

Leonie Cavill is among the patients who have travelled to access the clinic.

The 57-year-old lives in Eynesbury, near Melton.

She became sick early on in the pandemic, in March 2020, and has grappled with long Covid since.

She believes she caught Covid at a conference while mingling with people from overseas.

“While I had Covid it was like a pretty bad flu – but I was in bed for two months,” she said.

She said back in March 2020 she had not even been eligible for a PCR test due to their limited availability.

She was saddled with issues including chronic fatigue, debilitating migraines, brain fog and lack of concentration.

Leonie Cavill has long Covid. Picture: Supplied

Earlier in her ordeal, a GP close to her home had not heard of long Covid and suggested she was suffering menopause, she said.

Mrs Cavill had to stop work as a support worker for a while, and now does reduced hours.

She is still unable to read properly and continues to avoid crowds.

Mrs Cavill said having long Covid was expensive.

She found Dr Huang and the Geelong Long Covid Clinic via Google, and said although it was an hour from her home, she considered herself lucky to have it.

She was diagnosed with long Covid in September 2022, two and a ½ years after she first became unwell.

“I’m on a fair bit of medication and that’s certainly helping,” she said.

Mrs Cavill said there needed to be more awareness and support for people with long Covid, and better knowledge among health practitioners.

NEW research by RMIT University and Northern Health examined Australia’s long Covid services, guidelines and public health information, compared with international standards.

Co-lead author, Dr Shiqi Luo, was among researchers who identified 16 long Covid services in Australia at the time of the research.

Since then, seven services were created and three terminated, according to RMIT.

Dr Luo said there were insufficient clinics to meet demand.

Researchers found Australia lacking in several categories, including early investigation, accessibility and availability of trustworthy public health information, and adequate multidisciplinary services.

RMIT School of Health and Biomedical Sciences dean and co-author on the paper, Catherine Itsiopoulos, warned the problem would only worsen.

“Long Covid is here to stay,” Prof Itsiopoulos said.

“As Covid-19 cases continue to accumulate, the cases of long Covid will also increase.

“This new chronic disease will be highly costly to the individual and on public health systems worldwide.”

Symptoms could include fatigue, shortness of breath, persistent cough, joint pain, brain fog, cognitive dysfunction, anxiety, depression, loss of smell or taste and insomnia.

“Our study found that long Covid patients have fallen through the cracks due to poor diagnosis, complex multiple chronic disease needs and poor access to health care,” she said.

There are conflicting definitions of long Covid, with some at four weeks post-infection and others 12.

Victoria held a long Covid conference last month, convened by the health department, which identified rates of 14 per cent in a survey of more than 11,000 respondents.

Mrs Cavill and Mr Yeo attended and spoke, alongside Dr Huang and Dr Bernard Shiu from the Geelong Long Covid Clinic.

A Victorian health department spokeswoman said it continued to work with the federal government on options to ensure Victorians could access the care needed to manage the long-term impacts of Covid-19 and help them recover.

“Anyone who feels they may have long Covid should speak with their doctor about the best pathway for treatment and recovery – this can be managed by GPs, or with a referral to the relevant specialist clinic,” she said.

The department has worked to strengthen awareness among health practitioners and the community in a number of ways.

A federal health department spokesman said the government had invested to build a stronger Medicare, which would have positive impacts on complex and chronic disease management.

He said the federal government recently approved $50m through the Medical Research Future Fund for long Covid research.

Michael Yeo. Picture: Brad Fleet

IN late July Mr Yeo, who has seen numerous health practitioners and focused on rest in his journey to recovery, began to feel better.

He feels 90 per cent better but some new, “weird” symptoms, including chest pains and a recurring rash, had emerged more recently.

There definitely needed to be more awareness of long Covid, he said.

“I know there are some people that are quite dismissive … they don’t understand the long term effects it can have,” he said.

Originally published as Long Covid patients ‘falling through cracks’