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LOng COvid Multidisciplinary consortium: Optimising Treatments and servIces across the NHS (LOCOMOTION)
Safe People
Organisation name
Imperial College London
Organisation sector
Academic Institute
Applicant name(s)
Brendan Delaney
Funders/ Sponsors
Sarah Elkin
DEA accredited researcher?
Unknown
Sub-licence arrangements (if any)?
No
Safe Projects
Project ID
NIBDAPC_2023_0020
Lay summary
This project aims to understand the clinical needs of patients with Long COVID within North West London. It forms part of a UK-wide project called the LOng COvid Multidisciplinary consortium: Optimising Treatments and servIces acrOss the NHS (LOCOMOTION). Long COVID is a condition that causes some people to continue to feel unwell many weeks after their original COVID-19 infection. Patients may have a wide range of different symptoms, including tiredness, pain, rashes and heart palpitations, and may require many different medical tests or see many different specialist doctors to receive a diagnosis and the treatment they need. As a result, it is likely that some patients may take longer to be diagnosed, or maybe miss being diagnosed at all. Similarly, patients may receive different treatments and may have better or worse clinical outcomes. This project aims to look at how patients with a diagnosis of Long COVID in North West London receive care from their GPs and hospitals. We want to understand the sorts of appointments, clinical tests and treatments patients receive before and after their Long COVID diagnosis and to use this to understand where current services for patients with Long COVID could be improved. We also aim to investigate how the sorts of tests and treatments patients receive vary between patient groups, based on age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic deprivation, the London Borough they live in and any pre-existing medical conditions they may have. This will give us a deeper understanding of where inequalities in Long COVID care may exist between patient groups and will enable clinicians to better design services in North West London to help those for whom Long COVID services may be working less well. Long COVID is a new condition – it was unknown before the COVID-19 pandemic – and therefore across the country specialist clinics have developed to provide care to patients with Long COVID. Not all clinics operate in the same way and because it is such a new condition it is not yet clear which treatments work best for specific patients. The findings from this project with provide an important indication of how Long COVID care is being delivered across GP and hospital services in North West London.
Public benefit statement
A recent study describes the top 10 research priority areas for Long covid, this was a Joint patient and clinician priority setting to identify the key research questions regarding the long-term sequelae of COVID-19. This study will help inform what is currently happening in long covid assessment clinics, including, assessments, treatment and outcomes, diagnostic tools, the trajectory of recovery and evaluating the role of interventions, which has been identified as a key research priotiy by this consortium establishing.
Request category type
Public Health Research
Other approval committees
Latest approval date
31/03/2023
Safe Data
Dataset(s) name
TBC
Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
Not applicable
National data opt-out applied?
Not applicable
Request frequency
One-off
Safe Setting
Access type
TRE