On 6 January 2025, the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (CMICB) informed the Trust that ringfenced national funding used to establish and fund Long COVID Services will no longer be available in 2025/26.
Factors that led to this decision include:
- The significant drop in referrals to all services from 2023 (almost a 60% drop since 2022) and consequent impact in relation to the “cost per patient treated”
- The current service model includes several small local teams operated by different NHS providers. If we were to reduce budgets in-line with falling referral rates most become “non-viable”
- We are presented by the expected changes in ringfenced funding aligned with the challenged financial position across NHS Cheshire and Merseyside
- Benchmarking of the regional and national position shows Long Covid services are being closed or merged into other, more generic post viral services, reflecting changing clinical presentation and the wider financial climate of the NHS.
It was therefore agreed that all trusts within Cheshire and Merseyside providing Long COVID services should take immediate action to prepare for the cessation of their service from 1 April 2025.
Mersey Care were advised with immediate effect to:
- Placing an immediate pause on all new referrals and plan to end PIFU (Patient Initiated Follow Up) activity
- Begin to review all current patients who are on your active case load to see who it is possible to discharge or refer to other relevant services
- Start to put together a wind down plan outlining all relevant information considering staffing details, residual service requirements or pressures and anything else we may not be aware of that is impacted by this decision.