Australians face months on the waiting list

For some, the illness is so severe that it is difficult to get back to work. Demand for neuropsychological treatment has reached record levels, and Malpas said people on the Victorian public waiting list can wait six to twelve months for appointments. rice field.

In rare cases, patients have been waiting for 18 months, but people seeking treatment with private health insurance could be hit at a cost of $ 700 to $ 1,500 or even thousands of dollars, he said. Said.

“The problem is that there is no Medicare cover for cognitive diagnosis,” he said. “There is no personal way for patients to access without paying from their pockets. Depending on the complexity, we can discuss thousands of dollars.”

Malpas works on public and private systems. He personally charges the patient a minimum fee and treats people for free through the long COVID Clinic at The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

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Patients often require a 3-hour consultation, and expert diagnosis includes memory and concentration tests, neuroimaging tests such as MRI, and other biological studies.

Malpas warned of the growing health crisis. He said that giving Medicare a neuropsychological treatment is an “absolute game changer” for thousands of people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis who also experience cognitive dysfunction as well as long-term COVID patients. Said it would be.

“We hope that a long COVID will ultimately allow politicians to recognize that there is a cognitive pandemic,” he said.

“People shut down their lives, but with early treatment, the symptoms are often reversible and highly treatable,” Malpas said, saying that cognitive symptoms of long COVID can be very established. . “

Geelong GP Bernard Shiu has opened the state’s first Community Long COVID Clinic, and his team, including cardiologists, pulmonologists and psychiatrists, treats eight new patients each week. The clinic has a two-week waiting list, and patients have about $ 60 out of their pockets.

Shiu said some had been waiting for six months to enter the long COVID clinic. The most common symptoms are dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath, and a persistent cough. However, others have arrived with rashes and strange sensations, such as recurring pins and needles.

One recently evaluated patient with Shiu was unable to work for 18 months after being infected with the Alpha strain of coronavirus.

“The most important thing we can do for them is to make sure their symptoms are genuine,” he said. “Our job is to separate what we had before the COVID and determine that it is definitely a long COVID.”

Long COVID patients are generally defined as people with symptoms of the disease that last for more than 3 months after infection, Public health experts warned Australia is flying blindly when it comes to accurately assessing the scale of the condition.

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Professor Steven Faux runs a new long-COVID clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, with 100 people already on the waiting list. He is calling from all over Australia about people who are having a hard time dealing with their symptoms.

“We saved all these lives, but now there are some lives that aren’t really working properly and we don’t have the resources to deal with them,” Fake said.

An estimated 7 million Australians are infected with the coronavirus. According to Fake, 10 to 20 percent could be continuously affected. However, the definition of long COVID is still inadequate and the estimates are different. Fake suspects that the true number of people with persistent coronavirus symptoms may be somewhere between 700,000 and 1.4 million.

Shiu sees a full range of patients who recover quickly after changing their lifestyle, other patients due to existing conditions such as asthma, and more complex cases that cannot be explained by alternative diagnosis.

He wants to develop a protocol that allows all GPs to manage long COVIDs.

“There are thousands of people with long COVIDs, and there is a fear that the tertiary hospital will not be able to handle it,” he said.

Researcher Carroll Hodgson said there is an urgent need for funding to enable COVID to provide continuous care to long-term people and to conduct research on the long-term effects of the virus. rice field.

Hodison of the School of Public Health at Monash University led Australia’s first study of hundreds of people admitted to the intensive care unit with COVID-19. Six months after admission, 70% were found to suffer from persistent symptoms such as severe disability and signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hodgson said pressure on all areas of the healthcare system has made it difficult for many to access appointments to ensure support for people with disabilities and treatment for mental health care.

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“It’s really painful to talk to them now and hear that their needs aren’t met,” she said.

It is very disappointing that we had the opportunity to actually study the epidemiology of COVID-19, not only while the patient was in the hospital, but also to investigate the long-term effects, and it is very difficult to do so. was. .. “

A spokeswoman for the Federal Health Department said Australians with long COVIDs can get a variety of Medicare rebates for treatment, including rebates for each visit to a general practitioner and medications from the benefit scheme.

The GP can also refer the patient to a specialist for examination and treatment. This will also be rebated under Medicare.

People may also be subject to Medicare’s chronic disease management items. To qualify, the patient must have at least one medical condition that has been present for at least 6 months.

“Neuropsychological treatments and assessments are not currently subsidized under the Medicare benefit schedule, but some of the associated costs are covered by personal private health insurance or are eligible for NDIS support. May be funded through a national disability insurance system for, “she said.

A spokeswoman for the Victorian Department of Health said there are several long COVID clinics in the state that will roll out additional services. The Victorian Agency for Health Information is conducting research to identify the long-term dissemination and impact of COVID in the community in order to better understand demand.

For more information on Geelong’s Long COVID Clinic, please visit: geelonglongcovidclinic.com.au

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