Long Covid GP consultations ‘cost £23m’

Long Covid costs the UK at least an extra £23m in GP and other primary care consultations each year, according to estimates in a new study.

The University of Birmingham said extra appointments cost between £23m and £60m a year.

The study examined more than 950,000 electronic healthcare records since the start of the global pandemic.

People with long Covid report symptoms including persistent coughs and brain fog.

The condition is defined as having symptoms three months after the initial infection, which last for two months or more.

Analysis of the economic impact of long Covid has been published in BMC Primary Care – a peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on primary health care research.

The new study’s research team was led by the university and funded by grants from two bodies, the National Institute for Health and Care Research and UK Research and Innovation.

Factors found to increase primary care costs included being older, female, white, obese or someone with long-term health conditions.

Co-lead author Dr Shamil Haroon, from the university, said: “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.”

He said that using data from the earliest parts of the pandemic, the team had looked at a “balanced sample size of those who have had Covid and those who hadn’t”.

Dr Haroon added: “Long Covid as a condition also continues to be poorly understood and underdiagnosed.”

Co-lead author Dr Louise Jackson said: “These costs represent only a part of the overall increase in healthcare resources needed to support people with Long Covid and should be considered in future pandemic planning.”