Nurses living with long covid 'demoted from a round of applause to a kick in the teeth'
Around 250 nurses with long covid are unable to return to former roles. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie
Nurses with long covid who were infected while at work have been “quickly demoted by the Government from a round of applause to a kick in the teeth” one of those badly affected by the virus has said.
An estimated 250 nurses who caught the virus while at work went on to develop long covid symptoms, leaving them unable to return to high-pressure workplaces.
A temporary scheme to protect their salary payments is due to end in October, with no agreement yet on what will replace this.
Unions, including the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, have sought the introduction of an Injury at Work Scheme.
One senior HSE staff nurse said: “I contracted covid-19 in my workplace in January 2021, working on the frontline with no adequate PPE and no vaccine.”
Their team were issued with blue surgical masks at the time, not the protective FFP2 masks.
“Getting those masks was kind of a lottery; it depends where you were working,” they said.
“I’ve heard in some care-of-the-elderly services, which were hit really badly, there were managers locking masks up and telling nurses to re-use masks, to re-use aprons. People haven’t heard the half of what went on.”
More than two years later, they described “a shopping list” of symptoms leaving them with an uncertain future before turning 50.
“I have been suffering from long-covid symptoms, extreme chronic fatigue, brain fog, neuropathic aches and pains, insomnia, tinnitus, blurred vision, loss of smell and taste, breathlessness, anxiety, and have been unable to return to work for 21 months now,” the nurse said.
This nurse, who does not wish to be identified, said while ‘brain fog’ is the term often used, they feel cognitive impairment is more accurate. “I wouldn’t feel safe going back to work unless I was licking stamps,” they said. This nurse is married with children and faces all usual bills, so if the salary scheme ends in October, this will have an immediate financial impact.
Details of the scheme are determined by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in consultation with the Department of Health, a HSE spokesman said.
He highlighted a Healthcare Worker Access to Assessment and Treatment Scheme, to help with referring staff to long-covid clinics and the national neurocognitive clinic.
However this nurse, who is part of a group of 15 other nurses in a similar situation, said none of them have heard of this before.
In November the European Commission recommended member states recognise covid-19 as an occupational disease under certain circumstances, including for healthcare workers, which had given the nurses hope.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Protection said they are aware of this.
“The recommendation from the European Commission concerns covid-19 and not long-covid,” she said.
“The decision on whether or not to recognise an illness as an occupational illness is a decision for each member state. The department has consulted other relevant departments on the matter and the responses received are currently under consideration.”
In general, she said: “There are 342 people in receipt of a weekly illness benefit payment who certified with covid for more than 10 weeks as of 10 August 2023. We are unable to state that they are long-covid cases.”
Meanwhile, in Mayo, when Andrea Clarke caught covid around December 6, 2021, she did not expect the after-effects to last for almost two years and is only now starting to see improvement.
“It’s all about hope and giving people a bit of hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s a long old journey,” she said, explaining why she wants to discuss this publicly.
She was 41 and working in retail banking but since then her life has been changed completely, sometimes unable to work at all and now working two days remotely.
“It got worse as opposed to better,” she said of the first weeks. “I was getting worse as it went along, that was the scary thing about it.”
She tried to return to work in late December but became so ill her GP advised attending Mayo University Hospital, which identified she was infected with the virulent Delta variant.
“Then shortness of breath, palpitations started,” she said.
In early March she risked going on a long-postponed trip to New York with her partner. However, the breathlessness worsened, and after returning she developed new pains along her left side.
She sought emergency hospital help and was diagnosed with multiple pulmonary embolisms on both lungs. “I’m incredibly thankful to the nurses I met in that initial acute A&E unit, to my cardiologist, and my wonderful GP, who remained in contact throughout,” she said.
The mother of two was placed on waiting lists for long-covid clinics and other help, but these only trickled through this year.
In February, she saw a ‘wonderful’ HSE haematologist. “She said the clots were an unfortunate piece of the covid jigsaw. What she had said was yes, they are seeing this, and the research is there to suggest it is part and parcel of it,” she said.
While waiting, she had gone to see Professor Jack Lambert for private treatment in Dublin and said he also linked the clots with long covid. She is continuing treatment with him.
“I got covid in December 21 and I didn’t get an appointment in a [HSE] long covid clinic until February 23, so it was much too late,” she said.
Ms Clarke said a booklet given to her at that appointment was wonderful but she was disappointed not to be offered treatment.
“There was a Living Well [online] programme as well from the HSE. I did that in February and March this year,” she said, describing this as ‘great’.
Much of her support has come from other patients. She is a member of Thrombosis Ireland, Long Covid Ireland, and Long Covid Advocacy Ireland.
Looking forward, she said her concentration is much sharper and her energy is returning. “So compared to this time last year, I can park and reverse-park and do all these things I couldn’t do. Obviously I haven’t climbed Croagh Patrick again, but I can now walk and talk, which is a big thing and I’m not getting breathless. I can mange a 5km walk now, but it’s taken that time to build myself back up,” she said.
