The establishment of Long Covid Clinics will have a long term benefit for the nation's health service.
That's the argument made by Roscommon/Galway TD Denis Naughten following his calls for the government to fully resource the promised centres.
The Department of Health had committed to eight facilities specifically for people with the long-term effects of the virus, however they are not properly staffed.
The centres would host a multi specialist team designed to help people with the condition.
Long Covid is a term to describe the effects of Covid-19 that continue for weeks or months beyond the initial illness, including fatigue, brain fog and loss of taste and smell.
Deputy Naughten believes the centres can be presupposed to handle other chronic conditions down the line, thereby increasing the health service's treatment capacity:
We do need multi disciplinary teams, we need teams of doctors across a range of professions in the health services.
But those need to be set up. Absolutely we need them in the short term, in terms of people with long covid.
But in the medium and long term, there are many other chronic conditions out there where these multi disciplinary teams could provide exceptional care.
These teams could provide long term benefits to the health service.
