Members of the County Durham Care Partnership and other healthcare providers came together to develop a ground-breaking collaborative model of care able to tackle the complex and diverse symptoms experience by people living with the debilitating long-term effects of COVID-19.
It was realised early in this process that Long COVID presented increased need for collaborative working across specialties and across the wider healthcare system. After successfully establishing Long COVID clinics for the population of County Durham and Darlington.
The partnership of health professionals led by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust went on to develop a fully integrated treatment service - putting the person at the heart of the service – with access to a range of specialists and therapies, giving each person the care they need depending on their individual symptoms
The new pathway was then further improved to include a series of specially designed virtual group sessions to provide tailored support, advice and education to allow people to develop their own personalised treatment strategies. When launched, these sessions were thought to be the first of their kind in the country.
Each of the online session comprises around 12-15 participants and is led by a different clinical specialist. As well as allowing people to benefit from a large amount of clinician time and contact, the sessions are interactive. Patients can ask as many questions as they like and to hear and share from other patients’ experiences through an interactive chat function.
The service has seen a marked prominence of mental health conditions in patients who attend assessment clinic. This often not initially recognised, as patients are referred primarily with ongoing physical symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness and brain fog and this has been their focus until that point.
To encourage a personalised care approach throughout the whole service, the Long Covid treatment pathway has been designed to work seamlessly from primary care through to secondary care to incorporate aspects of holistic care and Lifestyle Medicine right from the beginning focussing on what is important to the person seeking help
Dr Caroline Gibson, Clinical Lead GP for the Long-Covid Service coordinated by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust explains: “A unique aspect of the Group Intervention Sessions is that it incorporates a lifestyle medicine approach which considers broader factors such sleep, nutrition, physical activity and stress management to help people to develop and implement their own recovery strategies.