Long COVID affects people in very different ways. There are lots of different symptoms, and there’s no clear relationship between the nature of a person’s COVID-19 and the likelihood that they’ll be affected with long COVID. It can be a confusing, frustrating condition, but if someone in your team is suffering with long COVID, they shouldn’t feel lost or alone. We can help.
What’s long COVID?
Most people fully recover from COVID-19. But for some, symptoms can continue for weeks, or even months, after catching the virus.
When managing long COVID, it’s important to remember that one size doesn’t fit all. There are numerous symptoms, which can range in severity and duration.
The symptoms of long COVID include:
- fatigue
- muscle and body aches
- shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- loss or change to sense of smell or taste
- confusion
- sharp or sudden chest pain
- depression and/or post-traumatic stress disorder
- cognitive impairment.
Supporting your employees
To help your people get back to feeling like themselves again, we’ve developed our long COVID service. Available for members aged 18 and over, it’s designed to support them on the road to recovery and provide the most clinically appropriate treatment.
So, once an employee has been referred for long COVID support by a GP, specialist or an approved occupational health clinician, they can call our team. We’ll help get them on their road to recovery. Whether that’s physiotherapy, a referral to a specialist consultant or, where clinically appropriate, a 12-week remote rehabilitation programme.
How to access this service
- Referral - Employee receives a long COVID referral from their GP, specialist or an approved occupational health clinician.
- Call us - They get in touch with our team of personal advisers.
- Book a consultation - If the referral is to see a specialist, we’ll book a consultation to establish next steps.
- For a physiotherapy referral, we’ll help them set up a face-to-face or remote video appointment with a physiotherapist at a time and place that’s convenient.*
- Expert assessment - Whether the consultation is with a specialist or a physiotherapist, they’ll assess your employee’s condition and outline next steps. This may involve diagnostics, treatment and continued expert care.
- 12-week rehabilitation programme - Both physiotherapists and specialists can refer employees for this remote rehabilitation programme, where clinically appropriate.**
*Physiotherapy and specialist consultations will affect the member’s outpatient limit and/or excess.
**The rehabilitation programme will affect the member’s excess.