6 Benefits of Long Covid Video Group Clinics in General Practice
There is a strong rationale for deploying a video group clinics (VGCs) approach to Long Covid, with huge opportunities to tackle waiting lists and adopt a supportive person-centred care pathway
Running VGCs in your practice for Long Covid care will:
1 Address waiting lists for Long Covid support
2 Help people fully describe and make sense of symptoms: people gain deeper insight and understanding of the complexity of their Long Covid symptoms by discussing them in a group setting
3️ Give patients more clinic time and validate their experience
4️ Support self-management: there is a need for a holistic, person centred approach to supporting people with Long Covid, grounded in self-management once the person has been assessed. There are limited clinical interventions that clinicians can offer, and it is very much over to the person to learn to pace, self-manage symptoms and recognise when to seek help if they deteriorate; classic elements of chronic disease management, which group clinics deliver very effectively. Video Group Clinics support self-management
5️ Support additional roles integration: There is recognised need to integrate ARRS within PCNs. The Long Covid DES is an opportunity to involve social prescribers to help patients think through how to live well with Long Covid, and develop a social prescriber led follow up model.
6️ Help clinicians to learn about Long Covid: clinicians report that their understanding expands when they work in Long Covid video group clinics; group clinics educate clinicians about Long Covid as much as they educate patients!
