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The prevalent issue overshadowing this pandemic is long COVID, and even healthcare professionals are not immune to its effects. A report commissioned by the British Medical Association (BMA) and published in The BMJ paints a concerning picture: 60% of doctors diagnosed with long COVID experience fatigue during their daily activities. Just under 20% confess to facing such debilitating fatigue that they can no longer carry out their work. However, only 31% currently hold a full-time position, which is a 46% drop from before their diagnosis.
This statistic would be distressing in any profession, but when it pertains to doctors, it raises concerns that this chronic condition could further strain healthcare systems worldwide, which are already in dire need of fit and healthy medical professionals. In the United Kingdom alone, it was estimated in January that the number of healthcare workers unable to work due to long COVID fell between 5000 and 10,000.
Doctors, nurses, and obstetricians all appear to be particularly vulnerable, possibly due to their heightened exposure to the virus. In the United Kingdom, these healthcare professionals, along with social workers, are seven times more likely than any other profession to have experienced a severe form of COVID-19. This is why the BMA is advocating for enhanced protection for those individuals who, through their professions, put their lives at risk to save others. At the time of falling ill, only 11% of those surveyed had access to FFP2 face masks. Yet now, despite the renewed recommendation to wear masks, especially in hospitals and healthcare facilities, it seems we have regressed to the early stages, as if we have learned nothing from our experiences.
The BMA is also urging the government and private healthcare employers to offer practical support to employees grappling with symptoms of long COVID, particularly asthenia, headaches, muscle pain, neuropathy, and breathing difficulties. In order to officially acknowledge this chronic condition as an occupational illness, we must first establish a comprehensive definition that encompasses all the manifestations of this elusive and incapacitating ailment.
