{"id":264163,"date":"2026-01-29T19:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/264163\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:46:08","slug":"some-15000-long-covid-patients-may-be-left-without-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/264163\/","title":{"rendered":"Some 15,000 long-Covid patients may be left without care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost six years after the Covid pandemic started, some 15,000 people are officially unable to work full time, according to figures from state benefits agency UWV and quoted by the Volkskrant.<\/a><\/p>\n

The specialist clinics<\/a> set up just over a year ago, and which have been treating just a fraction of patients, face the end of the government subsidies at the end of this year, prompting fears sufferers will be left without specialist care, the paper said.<\/p>\n

Patients suffering from long Covid will have to apply to regular healthcare, caretaker health minister Jan Anthonie de Bruijn told MPs in a briefing<\/a> two months ago, although the new government may take a different line.<\/p>\n

If the subsidy stops, experts fear that patients will be left to fend for themselves because family doctors don\u2019t know how to treat the severely ill patients and paramedical care is no longer covered by the basic health insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health ministry keeps looking the other way, it\u2019s maddening and unacceptable,\u201d medial specialist Wink de Boer told the paper. \u201cThese patients need somewhere where they will be taken seriously and where a dedicated team can help them. Even if we can\u2019t cure them, we can help them lead a better life. The need is so great.\u201d.<\/p>\n

De Boer and other doctors are proposing a national centre for post-acute infectious diseases, including long-Covid and other conditions caused by a virus or bacteria, such as Pfeiffer, ME\/CFS and Q fever.<\/p>\n

Government support for the centre has not been forthcoming, so the provincial authorities in Noord Brabant, which was severely hit by outbreaks of both coronavirus and Q fever, have decided to invest \u20ac200,000, with another \u20ac100,000 contributed by local councils.<\/p>\n

Over 1,800 people with ME are currently on benefits, as are 400 people suffering from the effects of Lyme disease, Q fever and Pfeiffer.<\/p>\n

Added to benefits paid to over 15,000 long-Covid patients, the bill comes to several million euros, insurance experts estimate.<\/p>\n

Patient organisations have also slated the lack of a long-term policy for patients, warning that the termination of subsidies for long-Covid research will result in the loss of knowledge.<\/p>\n

MPs are due to debate the government\u2019s strategy to deal with long-Covid on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost six years after the Covid pandemic started, some 15,000 people are officially unable to work full time,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-264163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}