On Monday, April 24, Ralf Krooshof and Andres Dijkshoorn, from the COVID Care program directorate of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, paid a working visit to C-support.
Annemieke de Groot, director of C-support, was the first to look back at the history of C-support and provided insight into the current figures for post-COVID. For example, she outlined that despite the fact that corona infections are decreasing, there are still many people who are dealing with post-COVID. In March 2023, C-support even had the second highest number of registrations over its entire existence. During the conversation that followed with two aftercare advisors, a medical advisor, primary process manager and Education and Research manager, various topics surrounding post-COVID were discussed. The two most important, or actually overarching, themes were 'the lack of knowledge about the disease post-COVID' and 'the safeguarding of care'.
Lack of knowledge: it is not burnout
There is a lack of knowledge about the post-COVID disease in society. Not only among relatives, family, and friends of the patient, but also among (healthcare) professionals. As a result, there is often a lack of understanding about the complaints that patients experience. Often others do not see the patient at their worst. The fact that a seemingly 'simple' agreement to others means that a post-COVID patient has to suffer with bed and couch rest for the rest of the week is of course not seen. Schools sometimes refer to students with post-COVID as 'lazy' because of this and an employer or company doctor describes the complaints of an employee with this condition as a 'burnout'.
And that while post-COVID is so much more than that. It is a system disease in which patients often have 10 to 15 complaints at the same time and therefore sometimes see more than 7 types of care providers to work on their problems. C-support is very committed to knowledge sharing. Many professionals have already followed further training, but not everyone. The question is also how we can reach everyone with this.
Safeguarding care: multidisciplinary approach necessary
Another theme that was discussed this afternoon is that post-COVID care is insufficiently secured in the regular care process. After all, around 97% of people with post-COVID can easily go to regular primary care with their complaints. But care is insufficiently secured, especially for the more seriously ill post-COVID patients. There is still no so-called care pathway or care street within which people with post-COVID are treated multidisciplinarily. As a result, they are constantly being passed around. This requires a lot of energy from everyone, but also costs more than necessary.
Happy with all the info
Krooshof and Dijkshoorn look back positively on the working visit. The information they received from C-support and the discussion about the consequences of post-COVID for the patients offered them new information on the one hand and confirmation on the other. “We work for the government because we want to set something in motion for the citizens of the Netherlands. C-support sees the people we also do our work for. It is good to hear what is already happening, how it is experienced and what can or should still change,” said Krooshof. C-support also looks back on a pleasant meeting where a lot of information was exchanged. This working visit will certainly be continued.
