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My experience with the Long COVID clinic

Posted By NurseToPatient

"My experience with the Long COVID clinic"

About: Belfast Health & Social Care Trust / Post Covid Syndrome Service

(as a service user),

Fairly rapid initial contact followed by weeks of silence and no communication. No information fed back to GP- I had to phone round multiple departments in a search for individuals as there’s no clinic number to ask for results to be forwarded. No clear remit or scope communicated to GP either- we waited months expecting onward referral to be told that wasn’t their job. 

No central telephone number as a POC, at least not one that anyone ever answers, switchboard transfer you to the vaccination centre soon as you mention covid and the numbers I was given during telephone assessment were never answered. I got lost in the system and investigations took 15+ weeks longer than I was advised. I’m over a year down the line and haven’t been referred to anyone medical yet because of delays. Will end up now paying privately as I’m deteriorating. 
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Responses

Response from Natasha Ferguson, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust 2 years ago
Natasha Ferguson
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 09/03/2023 at 11:29
Published on Care Opinion at 11:58

Dear NurseToPatient,

Apologies for the delay responding to your story. We are currently looking at this and I will submit a full response addressing the issues as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Natasha Ferguson

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Response from Natasha Ferguson, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust 2 years ago
We have made a change
Natasha Ferguson
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 22/03/2023 at 12:37
Published on Care Opinion at 14:40

Dear Nurse To Patient, my name is Natasha Ferguson and I am the Post Covid Clinical Coordinator. Thank you for your patience for our response. Firstly I would like to apologise for the experience you had with the Post Covid Service. Due to the difficulties with contacting our team that you have highlighted, and as we are a part time service, we have introduced a new service line number that is now manned daily with a voicemail service. We have also contacted switchboard and are working with them to ensure patient’s are directed to the appropriate service. As we are a one stop shop we can only give guidance on how long Pulmonary Investigations may take to contact you for an appointment, unfortunately their waiting times are out of our control and I can only apologise for your wait.

If you wold like to contact me to discuss any of this further you can reach me Natasha.ferguson@belfasttrust.hscni.net

Kind regards

Natasha

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