trendle.55 :signal:https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-covid-primary-year.html
> Long COVID is estimated to have cost the UK at least an extra £23 million in GP and other primary care consultations each year, according to a new study of more than 950,000 electronic health care records following the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
> Dr. Louise Jackson from the Health Economics Unit at the University of Birmingham and co-lead author of the study said, "COVID-19 has led to a significant increase in the need for primary care services. As a result, the financial burden of people getting Long COVID is estimated to be between £23m and £60m per year in additional consultations from GPs, nurses, and other health practitioners.
"These costs represent only a part of the overall increase in health care resources needed to support people with Long COVID and should be considered in future pandemic planning."
> Dr. Shamil Haroon from the Institute of Applied Health Research at the University of Birmingham and co-lead author of the study said,
"We have tried to calculate how much we need to support people with Long COVID in our health care system, as we know that many people have ongoing health issues following an infection.
"Using data from the earliest parts of the pandemic, we have been able to look at a balanced sample size of those who have had COVID and those who hadn't. These data show that the economic impact on primary care after COVID is not being felt equally in different communities and that access to care may vary among different parts of the population.
"We might expect that patients who are older or who have long-term health conditions will need additional primary care support, but we have also seen additional costs associated with being white and female.
"Long COVID as a condition also continues to be poorly understood and underdiagnosed. It's very likely that additional consultation time and resources have been needed for patients with Long COVID who don't have a formal diagnosis."
:farnsworth: 🔗 The cost of primary care consultations associated with long COVID in non-hospitalised adults: a retrospective cohort study using UK primary care data; Tufts et al, published November 20, 2023, BMC Primary Care https://bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-023-02196-1
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