Kingston University will be co-leading a new research programme into effective treatment for patients with long Covid, it has been announced.

Professor Fiona Jones, from the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education at Kingston and St George's, will lead a team of researchers investigating personalised rehabilitation programmes for people with the illness .

The project has received major funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and will work in partnership with long Covid patients to design and evaluate a package of self-management support personalised to their needs.

Nearly 1 million people in the UK live with long Covid, according to the latest ONS figures

It is thought that 10% of people who get a positive Covid-19 test develop long Covid - though given lower testing rates at the start of the pandemic the real percentage could be higher.

Common symptoms of long Covid include extreme tiredness (fatigue), problems with memory and concentration ("brain fog"), difficulty sleeping (insomnia), and depression and anxiety.

The full list, along with more information about the condition can be found on the NHS website

Professor Jones said: "Thousands of people in this country are currently suffering from the effects of long Covid, with many people infected in the first wave still experiencing a significant impact on their daily lives.

"We need people to have access to skilled practitioners that are local to them – which our project intends to deliver.

"Our hope is that wherever you live, if you experience long Covid, you can get access to personalised self-management support, connecting you with a rehabilitation practitioner with deep understanding of the condition."

Professor Monica Busse from Cardiff University's Centre for Trials Research, who will be coordinating the clinical trial element of the project, added: "Our project will focus on navigating life after long Covid where the variety of problems and uncertainty around how to manage creates real struggles for those affected individuals.

"We hope our work will lead to new models of care being available in the NHS for the benefit of those living with long Covid across the UK."

What is involved in the research project?

Researchers will develop a personalised rehabilitation programme that trained practitioners can deliver to patients.

People living with or recovering from long Covid will be recruited along with rehabilitation practitioners, who will co-design a new intervention.

This is expected to include a book, digital resources and a new training package for practitioners

A trial phase will follow, where the team intend to recruit more than 550 participants with long Covid from 24 community sites across London, Wales and the East of England and randomly allocate them to an intervention or control group.

The control group will receive NHS information already available, while the intervention group will receive the new co-designed resources and up to six coaching sessions from the trained rehabilitation practitioners.

The study team will then test the effect of the intervention and assess the participants recovery by seeing how they feel and cope with everyday activities.

They will also record everyday expenses and loss of work to understand the impact of the condition and the designed intervention on society and individuals.

This work will use co-design and training methodology developed by Professor Jones' Bridges self-management programme, which works across healthcare pathways to enable practitioners to deliver personalised self-management support enabling individuals living with complex long-term conditions to live well.

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