Resolution: Long COVID
Submitted by the RCN Nurses in Management and Leadership Forum
06 Jun 2022, 09:00 - 09 Jun, 18:00
This resolution passed.
Members can view a recording of the debate here.
That this meeting of RCN Congress asks RCN Council to campaign for nursing staff with long COVID to receive equitable and effective support.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic placed renewed emphasis on the health and social care staffing crisis. Before the pandemic, there were already 50,000 registered nurse vacancies across all health care organisations in the UK (Nursing Times, 2021)
It is now estimated that there are more than 1.5 million people in private households experiencing long COVID symptoms (Office for National Statistics, 2022). The nursing workforce is the largest occupational group affected.
As the number of COVID-19 cases remains high, nursing is likely to see more colleagues experiencing the effects of long COVID. Appropriate measures must be put in place to help and support colleagues return to work.
However, with long COVID Facebook groups full of alarming personal stories, it is clear the support provided by employers is often dependent on where a person lives. For the nursing workforce, this is particularly unfair and even immoral because a high percentage of staff contracted COVID while carrying out their duties at work and often because of inadequate personal protective equipment.
Terms and conditions of employment relating to long COVID vary across the four UK nations, with a number of employers no longer guaranteeing full sick pay for a prolonged period of sickness. This is resulting in a postcode lottery, with huge discrepancy in how staff are treated. Nurses on the frontline of the pandemic are clearly no longer ‘heroes’; rather they are being abandoned to an uncertain fate.
In Northern Ireland, trusts are working with staff and trade unions to agree appropriate initiatives for the allocation of charitable trust funding announced by the Minister of Health, which includes £1 million identified for nursing staff in each trust.
NHS staff in Scotland with long COVID remain on full pay, though this is not the case in the independent sector.
In Wales, NHS employees with over 12 months COVID sickness absence will continue to receive full pay until 30 June 2022. From 1 July individuals will move to a half-pay position for the length of time corresponding to their length of service.
But the time has come for a national strategic approach across the four UK nations to support nurses with long COVID.
To understand the extent of the challenge, each country must publish data detailing the numbers of nursing staff with long COVID. Once the extent of the problem is known, a national plan must be put into place to support these colleagues back to the workplace. Those not fit enough to return to work must receive appropriate financial support.
An individualised approach to returning to work is needed, reflecting good practice guidelines. Currently, many in the nursing profession describe an unsupportive workplace with an apparent refusal by management to deviate from a four-week phased return. This is unacceptable and needs to change now.
Failure to address these issues represents a denigration of duty and will mean substantial numbers of staff are lost from the workforce.
Reading lists for each agenda item can be found here.
References
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