Thread by @DrEricDing

Gosh—Over 122,000 🇬🇧 NHS personnel have #LongCovid, out of 1.1 million people in the UK were affected by the condition. What’s the #2 occupational group? 114,000 teachers. Many are unable to work full time because of Long #COVID19 illness & brain fog. 🧵
theguardian.com/society/2021/a…

2) “Patient care is being hit because many of those struggling with long Covid are only able to work part-time, are too unwell to perform their usual duties, or often need time off because they are in pain, exhausted or have “brain fog”.

3) “Ongoing illness can have a devastating impact on individual doctors, both physically and by leaving them unable to work—it puts a huge strain on the health service, which was already vastly understaffed before the pandemic,” said Dr Helena McKeown of British Med Assoc

4) “With around 30,000 sickness absences currently linked to Covid in the NHS in England, we cannot afford to let any more staff become ill. Simply put, if they are off sick, they’re unable to provide care and patients will not get the care and treatment they need.

5) “In the longer term, if more staff face ongoing illness from past Covid-19 infection, the implications for overall workforce numbers will be disastrous.”

6) And how common is #LongCovid? Very. See video and thread 🧵 below.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1355637599029899267

7) 20% at 5 weeks and 10% at 12 weeks have #LongCovid symptoms.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1355640837540032516

8) the crazy thing is that 30% of hospital recovered #COVID19 patients end up back in hospital within 5 months. That’s an insanely high %. And 12% (1 in 8) die of complications after discharge.

It’s a “mammoth” task to tackle #LongCovid.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1351198602010513411

9) “They added that “many felt angry that they had, almost certainly, contracted Covid-19 in their workplaces but now felt abandoned or even penalised. A small but not insignificant number have been asked to leave roles due to prolonged sick leave.”

We must recognize #LongCovid