Plea from Leitrim nurse suffering from Long Covid

“I got this illness because of work, and I feel like the HSE, and the government are leaving me to rot, it's soul- destroying and an awful way to treat the very ones who had no choice but to go to work with no vaccine and inadequate PPE.”

These lines are taken from a letter sent to TD Marian Harkin by a nurse in Leitrim describing the effects of Long Covid. It was quoted by the Sligo Leitrim Deputy in the Dail when she called on the Minister for Health to recognise the condition as an occupational illness for healthcare and frontline workers.

Ms Harkin read the letter into the Dail record. “I'm a 41-year-old nurse, wife and mother of five in north Co Leitrim. I contracted Covid at work in January 2021 pre vaccines with inadequate PPE. Fast forward over 18 months later I'm still not back at work and remain unwell. Covid has massively impacted my health, I now have ongoing shortness of breath, muscular pain, nerve pain, joint pain, fatigue and brain fog. Pre Covid, I worked full time, now I need to lie down after a trip to Lidl.

“Covid has stolen my health, career and life as I knew it from me, it's so disheartening that the government has still not acknowledged Covid as an occupational illness.”

Deputy Harking stated "Minister, surely that is the strongest case that can be made for recognizing Long Covid as an occupational illness for healthcare and frontline workers.

“Over 330,000 people are suffering with Long Covid and in September 2021 the HSE committed to fully staffing post-Covid and Long Covid clinics but only one-third of promised whole-time equivalents were in place by October 2022. That’s just not acceptable.

“People’s lives, family lives have been turned upside down and a multidisciplinary public health approach is needed to treat the disease in its totality. It is also crucial that Long Covid clinics are available throughout the country and in that context, I am calling on the Minister to establish a Long Covid clinic for the northwest in Sligo. There is a clinic in Letterkenny but after 12 weeks patients have to travel to Galway or Dublin for further treatment.

“Patients in the northwest deserve better and that is why a Long Covid clinic must be established in Sligo.”