Important Update for Scotland

As many of you know, the original founders of the campaign come from across the U.K. It’s Cass in Scotland writing this update today! 

Thanks to everyone who has recently emailed us and I’m sorry if we haven’t got back to you yet: We all have a lot of real life issues to deal with, plus some of us work cross campaign, in the interests of the Long Covid community and this is exceptionally hard work, especially when you have very limited energy.

First, let’s address the elephant in the room: The Long Covid Inquiry evidence sessions. In all honesty, we haven’t been keeping up. Aside from the aforementioned real life and other work, TV licence issues and so on, it’s exceptionally triggering to have to listen to politicians who knew exactly what they were doing claiming they’re sorry for what happened. Absolutely nobody has issued an apology to the Keyworkers affected by occupational Long Covid, let alone taken action towards compensation and a pension scheme - which is critical if you were infected as a newly qualified professional or had not been long in your job. Have we discussed how the appearances outside of the Inquiry seem to be like a PR Rehabilitation exercise? Possibly. But I will say this (my own opinion); until meaningful apology is made, until a U.K.-wide compensation and pension scheme is set up, until Covid and Long Covid are recognised as occupational conditions or diseases, I rather doubt many Keyworkers will be able to move onto the forgiving and forgetting aspect of the grieving process. 

Meanwhile, in Scotland.

With the best will in the world, we are a very small team, all with lots of commitments and health issues. We are planning on a team meeting soon to check in with each other and see what kind of plans we need to make for Wales and England, most likely working in partnership with other Long Covid charities and organisations. In Scotland, the Keyworker Petition Campaign works very closely with the Scottish Healthcare Worker Coalition as well as Long Covid Scotland. I’m a member of all three, so there’s a LOT of crossover as you might imagine. I work with the lovely Brenda as well, in relation to media coverage and so on. 

This past week, along with Long Covid Scotland, I met with Mark Griffin in relation to this upcoming Bill which we hope might make some difference to those affected by occupational Long Covid: During the meeting I realised that my hopes for a relatively light campaigning and work summer were dashed. We are waiting on more information before we approach our partners, but we wanted to give those of you who have occupational Long Covid which you caught as a result of working in Scotland a chance to know that a public consultation and submission period is coming this summer. As yet, we don’t know what kinds of questions will be asked or which individuals or organisations might be called to give evidence, but we are aware of it, as are the Scottish Healthcare Worker Coaltition. We just wish the rest of the U.K. was looking to make these kinds of changes, like individual MSPs are. Still - one country at a time if we have to, eh? 

The Scottish Healthcare Worker Coalition, of which I am also part of (who have Core Participant Status at the Scottish Covid Inquiry), is about to undertake a survey of Scottish health and social care professionals about their Long Covid and Covid experiences - as soon as we get it finished. As you might imagine, this is pending on real life, relapses and energy. We are hopeful that the first draft of the proposed survey will be ready for launch this week. It will be open to those in health and social care who work or have worked in Scotland. The Keyworker Petition survey, which you all responded to magnificently back in March, is the base for this. 

One final point on Scotland is that their Inquiry is keen to hear from those in Scotland affected by Covid and Long Covid - you can find out more here.

In the meantime, I remain really stunned every time I get calls or messages from friends who live in all corners of the U.K. saying they’ve heard or seen me across the U.K. media, talking about Long Covid. I’ll admit it’s extremely odd to me to be this visible and well known. The most recent occasion was being told that a pal working at a trade show unrelated to LC had been chatting to someone, mentioned me (during a discussion about the condition) and had been treated to several minutes of how much I am doing for the community and so on. Apparently I was heard on Women’s Hour - I don’t know if that’s true. 

Please rest assured that it’s just health getting in the way of more work and updates. We would absolutely love to have more people on board working with us, especially if you have skills in social media, letter and document drafting, happy to speak to the media or provide a case study. 

Thank you, as always, for all your support. We would absolutely love to hit the 150k mark with supporters and even get beyond that! We are still amazed we have achieved so much, are approached across the U.K. to contribute to important issues facing our communities and we would not be here without each and every one of you.