{"id":6778,"date":"2024-08-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/?p=6778"},"modified":"2024-08-16T17:46:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T21:46:50","slug":"opinion-closing-long-covid-clinics-a-devastating-blow-to-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/news\/opinion-closing-long-covid-clinics-a-devastating-blow-to-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Closing long-COVID clinics a devastating blow to patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was dismayed to see Alberta Health Services\u2019 <a target=\"_blank\" lang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/edmontonjournal.com\/news\/alberta-shuts-down-long-covid-program\" rel=\"noopener\">decision<\/a> to abruptly shut down the three long-COVID clinics and outpatient programs last week. This was done without any consultation, notice or consideration for those who access these crucial health care services.<\/p>\n<p>As a long-COVID patient I was personally able to access their rehab services, which were incredibly helpful for me. Many may not realize how long-COVID impacts the entire body, and the extent of care supports many long-COVID patients require.<\/p>\n<p>I went from being a very active person to being homebound and unable to work. The support I received through the clinic helped me regain some of my function and made my activities of daily living more manageable. <\/p>\n<p>Through the clinic I was able to access cardiac and respiratory testing, as well as many rehabilitation therapists, including a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, recreational therapist (so critical when you\u2019re housebound), a speech language pathologist, and a social worker. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was dismayed to see Alberta Health Services\u2019 <a target=\"_blank\" lang=\"en\" href=\"https:\/\/edmontonjournal.com\/news\/alberta-shuts-down-long-covid-program\" rel=\"noopener\">decision<\/a> to abruptly shut down the three long-COVID clinics and outpatient programs last week. This was done without any consultation, notice or consideration for those who access these crucial health care services.<\/p>\n<p>As a long-COVID patient I was personally able to access their rehab services, which were incredibly helpful for me. Many may not realize how long-COVID impacts the entire body, and the extent of care supports many long-COVID patients require.<\/p>\n<p>I went from being a very active person to being homebound and unable to work. The support I received through the clinic helped me regain some of my function and made my activities of daily living more manageable. <\/p>\n<p>Through the clinic I was able to access cardiac and respiratory testing, as well as many rehabilitation therapists, including a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, recreational therapist (so critical when you\u2019re housebound), a speech language pathologist, and a social worker. <\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/news\/opinion-closing-long-covid-clinics-a-devastating-blow-to-patients\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Opinion: Closing long-COVID clinics a devastating blow to patients<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[315,316,96,18,391,11,937,88,309,14],"class_list":["post-6778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-alberta-health-services","tag-canada","tag-covid-19","tag-first-person-stories","tag-long-covid","tag-long-covid-clinics","tag-medical-treatments","tag-pro-virus-policies","tag-sars-cov-2","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6780,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778\/revisions\/6780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}