Nurse with long Covid urges action as cases double in six months

A nurse who was unable to work full-time for a year after catching coronavirus is among those calling for urgent action after figures showed the number of people living with long Covid has doubled in six months.

Wendy Stevenson, 51, a community psychiatric nurse from Larbert, contracted Covid in November 2020 and is still living with the effects of the virus almost 18 months on.

She only returned to work full-time a year after she was first infected.

Last May, she started working from home for one hour per day but even those 60 minutes left her feeling exhausted.

Her sister called her every day to check on her, but Ms Stevenson said she could not remember their conversation from one day to the next.

She said: “I was on special sick leave for months. I had every kind of symptom, from permanent headache to constant dizziness, kidney and groin pain, restricted breathing and increased heart rate.

“I saw the asthma nurse through my GP and was treated for breathlessness with antibiotics and steroids, but it didn’t clear up. For the first three months after getting Covid, I had to sleep upright because of the pain in my chest. I still have that pain.”

Previously active and sporty, Ms Stevenson can no longer do any of the activities she once took for granted.

According to the Office for National Statistics, she is among the 151,000 people in Scotland living with long Covid.

Its latest data shows of those, 64,000 people have had symptoms for more than 12 months – up from 29,000 in November 2021.

The charity Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland has called for urgent action from the Scottish Government to help people with long Covid, including improved integration of third sector services with the NHS so they can reach more people who need support.

It wants to ensure more sufferers can access the Long Covid Support Service, but claims there is a lack of proper referral and data-sharing which has slowed down partnerships.

Jane-Claire Judson, chief executive of Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, said: “The number of people living with the long-term effects of long Covid is increasing at an alarming rate.

“Every month more and more people are needing support and progress to meet their needs for care just isn’t fast enough.

“They deserve better and we need to see more urgent action from the Scottish Government.

“People might feel we are getting back to some kind of normality, but so many people with long Covid feel there is no return to normality in sight. Many are struggling to return to their jobs or do the things many of us take for granted, like going for a walk to the end of the road.”

Ms Stevenson has signed up to a study on long Covid and said her symptoms are gradually improving.

But she added: “I still have the chest pains and the breathlessness. My chest is still not right.

“I don’t know what they can do to make things better for people like me. But if there is damage to my chest, I need to know. I need to know if I’ve got this for the rest of my life.”