Long COVID services in Lancashire and South Cumbria

From Thursday 1 May 2025, the long COVID services in Lancashire and South Cumbria will no longer be commissioned as stand-alone services. 

These services have now closed to new referrals and the way in which patients with long COVID access support will change.

This decision was taken by the ICB Board on Wednesday 26 March 2025 due to a significant drop in referrals, and a change to the national funding from 1 April 2025. 

The average number of referrals per month over the last 12 months across Lancashire and South Cumbria was 47. 

This is in comparison to an average of 72 referrals per month in 2023, 146 per month in 2022 and 172 per month in 2021. 

Anyone currently accessing the long COVID service in Lancashire and South Cumbria will be contacted directly by their provider to let them know what will happen next and how they can continue to be supported.

People with long COVID symptoms should see their GP who will be able to refer them to alternative existing services depending on their clinical needs.

Examples of alternative services (dependent on individual patient need) include:

  • Talking therapies
  • Pain management services
  • Respiratory/pulmonary rehabilitation services
  • Community therapies, such as occupational therapy and physiotherapy

Referrals can also be made to: 

  • Other specialties, including cardiology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, neurology
  • Local wellbeing and support organisations
  • Local social prescribing services

There are also a range of national support organisations which can be accessed through the following links:

Are you currently accessing a long COVID service? If so, we'd like to hear from you...

We would like to understand how well informed about the changes you feel, and how well supported you feel.

Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey: Long COVID survey.

Alternatively, you can contact our patient experience team by email: lscicb-fw.patientexperience@nhs.net or call 0300 373 3550.

What is Long COVID?

Most people with COVID-19 feel better within a few days or weeks of their first symptoms and make a full recovery within 12 weeks.

For some people, symptoms can last longer. This is called long COVID or post COVID-19 syndrome. Long COVID is a new condition which is still being studied.

Symptoms of long COVID

The most common symptoms of long COVID are:

However, there are lots of symptoms you can have after a COVID-19 infection, including:

  • loss of smell
  • chest pain or tightness
  • difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
  • pins and needles
  • depression and anxiety
  • tinnitus, earaches
  • feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite
  • cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste
  • rashes

Contact your GP surgery if you've had symptoms of COVID-19 for four weeks or more and are worried

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