Rehabilitating Long Covid Patients Effectively

It has been estimated that two million people in the UK are living with Long Covid and 66% report symptoms are adversely affecting day-to-day activities. It’s also been addressed that “safe and effective rehabilitation is increasingly recognised as a fundamental health service that people living with Long Covid have the right to access¹”

patient on hospital bed next to nurse

What is ‘Long Covid’? The NHS² state: “For some people, coronavirus (COVID-19) can cause symptoms that last weeks or months after the infection has gone. This is sometimes called post-COVID-19 syndrome or “Long Covid”.

Paul Chrisp, Director of the Centre for Guidelines at NICE also states: “Recovery from any infectious illness can take time and although most people with COVID-19 will recover completely within a few weeks from the onset of symptoms, we know that a sizeable minority will continue to have symptoms for 12 weeks or more afterwards, regardless of how ill they were initially or whether they were hospitalised.³”

Immobility and Long Covid: Based on real-time assessment of community transmission findings (REACT2)⁴, it was noted symptoms of those diagnosed with Long Covid included:

Small cluster with respiratory symptoms
Larger cluster where tiredness was the dominant symptom
Participants noted symptoms had a “significant effect on my daily life”

It is reasonable to suggest that those who are breathless and fatigued may become less mobile. Immobility is most associated with muscle deconditioning but effects all of the body systems creating problems such as⁵:

Cardiac – postural hypertension/cardiac deconditioning
Respiratory – respiratory tract infections
Haematological – DVTs
Gastrointestinal – constipation
Renal – urinary retention and UTI
Musculoskeletal – muscle atrophy, contractures, reduction in bone density and pressure damage to skin
Psychological – confusion, depression and loss of confidence

Other impacts of immobility associated with respiratory infections (such as Covid-19) include:

Study of those surviving ARDS show persistent functional disability one year post-discharge, and exercise limitation five years post-admission⁶
It is widely recognised that early activation directly influences the long-term rehabilitation outcomes for patients who have been in an immobilised state in acute care
Over the pandemic, it has become apparent that the Covid-19 virus adds another level of complexity to this already demanding set of physical and physiological circumstances

As such, the importance of early active rehabilitation of the patient in order to enhance long term recovery and quality of life is paramount.

What can we do to minimise the effects of immobility? Dr Colin Robertson who presented at Medstrom’s Long Covid webinar, suggested to minimise the effects of immobility, three steps should be taken:

Early activation – no movement is too small
Alter posture — prone, supine, side-lying, seated, near upright
Adopt a schedule — regular and often

Medstrom Aria 6000 and MMO 6000:

Launched in 2021 to he Medstrom hospital bed lp address the consequences of immobility for patients such as those diagnosed with Long Covid, Medstrom are proud to offer the advanced combination of the MMO 6000 and the Aria 6000 to help achieve the three simple steps to minimising immobility as advised by Dr Colin Robertson.

This superior coupling of products enables a patient to be put in a full-egress position via the touch of a button, allowing patients to effortlessly progress from a sitting to a standing position safely and easily. It fundamentally helps to: