'No long Covid clinic from Waterford to Galway'
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Miriam Cullen says she is grieving for her lost life as long Covid has left her out of work and with serious health problems two years after the infection.
She is also among a small number out of an estimated 141,000 long Covid patients with access to a dedicated clinic and despite her symptoms said she feels “lucky” to have this.
There are just seven post-Covid or long Covid clinics linked into the HSE national model of care, a spokeswoman said.
Ms Cullen caught Covid-19 in March 2020 while visiting a family member dying in a nursing home. In total, eight of the family caught the virus, and her brother-in-law, tragically, died.
She was taken to the emergency department three times but was never admitted, so she thought once the infection passed all would be well.
“As a result of my chronic cough, I ended up with a respiratory consultant in St James. I got sinus surgery, none of that really helped, so he sent me to the post-Covid clinic,” she said.
“My mental state went really down as well, I am grieving a lost life. I used to cycle everywhere, booting around the place and now it’s so different.”
A range of symptoms come and go including heart problems, functional neurological disorder (FND), and chronic fatigue, she said.
“The physio in James did give me exercises for this, but I didn’t have the stamina. I was told I need a physio who specialises in FND, but there isn’t one (in Ireland),” she said.
Unable to return to her business in the early education sector, she said the clinic, her GP, and HSE counselling services have kept her going.
“I am lucky as well that probably I am so bad I am getting such good care, it must be awful to be getting no proper diagnosis or results.
"I know someone who can’t even get a referral to a neurologist,” she said.
She had been campaigning for funding to support the clinic, however a spokesman for St James said they recently got permanent HSE funding confirmed to include occupational therapy and physiotherapy.
Outside Dublin, the picture is quite different according to Esther-Mary D’Arcy, professional advisor at the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists.
Her organisation has been calling for more regional clinics since September.
“If you look at it in terms of a visual map of Ireland, there is no long Covid clinic between Waterford and Galway, there is nothing in the centre of Ireland,” Ms D'Arcy said.
She estimated there are 13 clinics between those supported by the HSE and once-a-week clinics run by hospitals independently.
“When people come into these clinics, it’s like a one-stop-shop. If they need to see a cardiologist or a psychologist — they have access to all of that. We need those kind of clinics,” she said.
“I think everyone in the country needs equal access to a Covid-clinic so they can access a physiotherapist and other members of the team.”
The HSE spokeswoman said they support long Covid clinics at St Vincent’s University Hospital and Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, as well as University Hospital Galway.
This programme also supports four clinics for people whose symptoms last a shorter time including at Cork University Hospital.
The hospital has previously said it is facing recruitment challenges in opening a long Covid clinic.