Mersey Care’s Long COVID service has developed content for an online app to help speed up the recovery of patients suffering from the effects of the debilitating condition.
Working in partnership with Physitrack, the Long COVID service have filmed a series of breathing, movement and mindfulness videos that have been uploaded to the app, known as PhysiApp, allowing patients to see therapists performing the movements and techniques demonstrated in clinic.
The team can remotely monitor their patients’ activity via the new dashboard as they work through their tailored plan, which also allows them to comment on how they feel whilst participating in the movement and techniques.
“The resources we’re making available on the app, allow us to work closely with our patients to develop a personalised treatment plan, that can address not just physical symptoms but also emotional and mental wellbeing,” explained Dr Chris Barker, Mersey Care’s Clinical Director.
“The Long COVID service aims to empower patients with the knowledge and confidence to help manage their symptoms and regain control of their health.”
Those suffering from Long COVID can experience a variety of symptoms, including extreme tiredness and fatigue, feeling short of breath, problems with memory and concentration (otherwise known as brain fog), heart palpitations, dizziness, joint pain and muscle aches
According to the Office for National Statistics, around 1.9 million people living in private households in the UK reported to be suffering from Long COVID symp-toms on 6 March 2023. If you think you’re suffering from any of these symptoms, please go and see your GP for a referral.
The app with all the exercises, breathing techniques and mindfulness is available to patients of Mersey Care’s Long COVID service. Referrals into one of their clinics are made via your GP, who will need to confirm it has been over 12 weeks since your COVID symptoms started.
You also need to be registered with a GP in Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton or St Helens.
3 Comments
Exercise is not the right treatment for Long Covid. It completely misunderstands the problems that most patients face and is effectively a way to minimise the effect of the virus and make it seem as though the patient is at fault. It also makes it appear as though through conditioning one can overcome Long Covid and that is not realistic nor the experience of millions of patients – some who’ve suffered for 4+ years and excercise would make them worse still. What is needed is research into the condition, effective tests & biomarkers, assessing patients for the right phenotype of the condition and using treatments for symptoms that have existing treatments. Medics need to catch up and quickly. They have tried these ineffective treatments for conditions such as ME/CFS and it’s the entirely wrong approach.
Such exercise treatments have already been tried for ME/FS (a wealth of medical information out there as to why the diagnoses are compatible) ad the consequences have been horrendous, leaving some patients in a worse state even years later. look up the test results and the scandal that arose as results were fiddled t give fraudulent results. The claim they’ll help help “patients gain control of their health” is irresponsible. With ME of those who recover 90% do so within the first year. To ignore decades and decades of solid research into post-viral problems exactly like Long Covid is bordering on the criminal. If anyone is damaged by this they should sue.
With reference to my previous comment, the worst example of the graduated exercise programme was the PACE trail. Here’s a sparse overview but going into the actual data reveals so much more: vhttps://meassociation.org.uk/2018/02/government-funded-me-cfs-trial-one-of-greatest-medical-scandals-of-21st-century-20-february-2018/. Bear in mind also the the trial only took on the fittest sufferer so must sufferers would be took sick to take part in the trial.
There’s also the cruelty of offering sufferers false hope.