New guidance on commissioning clinics for rehabilitation from COVID-19 shared across London
UCLPartners have collaborated with NHS England and Improvement’s Clinical Advisory Group to produce new guidance that sets out an evidence base for standards of care for rehabilitation services offered to patients affected by COVID-19.
With the population still feeling the significant impact of COVID-19, there is increasing evidence that many individuals who have had the virus require ongoing care and support beyond their initial recovery.
Rehabilitation is a core component of recovery from a major injury, illness or disease. In order to aid understanding across the system of how best to meet patient’s rehabilitation needs, UCLPartners facilitated the sharing of best practice from experts across the medical community, to form standards for patient rehabilitation, addressing cognitive, psychological and physical needs.
The guidance, issued to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) across London, provides guiding principles and core standardised COVID follow up and rehabilitation care frameworks, which support equitable access and provision to aid patient recovery.
Speaking about the guidance, Prof Mike Roberts, Managing Director, UCLPartners said: “Personalised rehabilitation, tailored to patient needs, is crucial to give patients the best chance of a successful recovery. It is important for services to take a multi-disciplinary, whole system approach when providing post-COVID-19 and post-ICU rehabilitation services.
“The evidence regarding the impact of COVID-19 on patients is rapidly emerging and it’s important to acknowledge that we don’t yet know the full extent of rehabilitation needs of people who are recovering from COVID-19. We have based these guidelines on the best available evidence at this time but we will continuously review this to ensure it is aligned with the latest evidence and evolving data.”