The British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing have written to the government urging it to recognise long COVID as a prescribed industrial disease.
The British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing have written to the government urging it to recognise long COVID and severe post-COVID-19 complications as a prescribed industrial disease for health and social care workers.
The unions representing doctors and nurses are urging the government to accept the recommendations of the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council paper as a first step in recognising the risks that health and care workers took on during the pandemic.
BMA chair Tom Dolphin and RCN general secretary and chief executive Nicola Ranger warn in the letter to the secretary of state for work and pensions of the “debilitating effects” of Long COVID on numerous doctors, nursing and midwifery staff, many of whom were previously left, or remain, unable to work, leading to significant financial detriment.
The letter notes that providing recognition of certain post-COVID complications as an occupational disease would allow some of those affected to receive Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefits.
Supporting the call for the government to accept the recommendations in the paper, BMA occupational medicine committee chair, Kathryn McKinnon, said: “It is deeply disappointing that we yet again mark another year where the government has failed to recognise Long COVID and severe post COVID-19 complications as an occupational disease in healthcare workers.”
