Across Canada, an estimated 1.4 million people have experienced long COVID and specialized clinics exist in only five provinces. So why is access to patient care so scarce?
Through a survey of health authorities and professionals, conducted in November, CADTH found a total of 25 clinics or networks of clinics in Canada, all located in B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. Although responses were not given for Nova Scotia and Nunavut, at the time of the survey, no clinics were found in any other provinces.
The CADTH report is not exhaustive, and does not include private clinics. But it offers a rough picture of the care that is available. The impact long COVID has on people’s lives can vary. For some, it can be a nuisance. For others, it can rob them of the ability to work and carry out daily tasks.A stepped-care model, which is used in mental health, will be important to provide care to more patients with the condition, Dr. Quinn said. In such a model, most patients could be supported through primary care, while more complex cases may require the involvement of specialists or multidisciplinary teams.
Underserved populations are less likely to have a family doctor, and may face multiple other potential barriers to getting help for long COVID, including language barriers and the distance they need to travel to get to specialized clinics, said Sonia Anand, professor of epidemiology and medicine at McMaster University.
Ms. Jamieson worries hurdles such as these may be a reason B.C.’s network of specialized long COVID clinics is seeing a decline in referrals, which it cited when it announced in February it would merge its four existing regional clinics into a single virtual clinic on April 1. The Post-COVID-19 Interdisciplinary Clinical Care Network reported a 90 per cent decrease in referrals from 755 referrals in May 2021 to 80 referrals a month in the last three months of 2022.
Many people now believe COVID is no more harmful than the flu, she said. But this has not been her experience. “Even if it’s mild, it creates these symptoms.”
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