On 23 January, LCK young advocate Rosie Pidgeon met the Northern Ireland (NI) Health Minister. He agreed to meet her to talk about her experience of NI’s Long Covid Clinics. See A Teenager's Experience of a Long Covid Clinic in Northern Ireland
The Minister, Mike Nesbitt, invited her to his office in Stormont. In this photo, Rosie is waiting with her FFP3 mask, CO2 monitor and personal HEPA filter. When we contacted the Minister's staff in advance, he agreed to meet Rosie in a room with open windows. He also agreed to wear an FFP3-grade mask.
Rosie carefully explained her symptoms and the Minister listened politely and attentively. He asked questions to clarify a few things. She also explained how let down she had been by the clinic in 2022.
He then asked an official to explain what the department is doing now. They plan to introduce a regional service for post-viral illnesses.
Rosie asked "will the new clinic be open to everyone?"
The Health Minister replied "the clinic will be open to children and young people!"
This was welcome news because previously the clinics were only open to over 16s.
Rosie shared the Long Covid Kids presentation on the gold standard service for children and young people with Long Covid – it should be doctor-led, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive.
The plan is that the new service will be ‘best-practice’. Rosie asked if LCK could be consulted on the plans and it was reassuring to hear the Minister agree that LCK would be asked for input.
After talking some more about the need for research, Rosie asked about some specific treatments she has found helpful: LDN (low-dose naltrexone) and pabrinex infusions. These were prescribed off-licence by her NHS consultant but bought privately. But since he retired, Rosie cannot get the medications that she found helpful on the NHS anymore and the family have not been able to find anyone else to prescribe them. Rosie has to go privately for LDN and can no longer get Pabrinex from any source
The Minister agreed to get his officials to look into how they could help with this.
They say good things come in threes. Rosie was delighted with these commitments made by the man in charge of the NI health system.
Before she left, Rosie presented the Minister with one of the paintings she created for an LCK exhibition in Lisburn in 2022. It is called simply I Want My Life Back.
She hasn’t got it back yet. However, now there is a bit more hope for her and for other children and young people with Long Covid in Northern Ireland.
