The hidden victims of Covid-19 and how we can help them

Martin Usher, a Partner at Lime Solicitors specialising in supporting people following serious injury and major trauma, explores how Covid-19 has impacted the support available to people recovering from serious injury and highlights the important of us all coming together to fill the void.

Following serious injury, such as traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, it is of paramount important that both the injured person and their loved ones have access to medical treatment,

Martin Usher rehabilitation, care and support at an early stage to ensure that they make the best possible recovery and to enable them to as far as possible return to independent and fulfilling lives. Many of the services available to people following serious injury have been greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, like NHS resources that have been understandably redirected to deal with the pandemic, and support from charities, such as Spinal Injuries Association and Child Brain Injury Trust to mention a few, whose funding has invariably been hit by the economic conditions that accompany a pandemic.

Now that all restrictions have been lifted and we move our way towards summer it would be easy to assume that everything will quickly return to normality. The development of multiple vaccines in record time and the successful rollout of the same is beyond miraculous, as is the sterling work of all of the NHS staff and volunteers who have helped our society navigate its way through the pandemic. There is however still a long way to go and there are many great challenges that we will need to overcome before we have a society that is even close to resembling what we had prior to the pandemic.

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of all will be returning the NHS to where it was before the pandemic. NHS resources are still heavily focused on tackling the pandemic and, as has been the case throughout the pandemic, these resources have invariably been redirected from elsewhere. By way of example, as at January 2022 the number of people on NHS waiting lists for consultant-led elective care stood at 6.1 million people compared to a figure of 3.31 million people in September 2015. There is no doubt that people who have sustained serious injury, including traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, are amongst the people that are waiting for further investigations, operations and therapies. These are the hidden victims of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I have spent my whole career supporting people who have sustained serious injury and as such have seen first-hand how detrimental to outcomes that delays in the provision of medical treatment and rehabilitation can be. I have also seen on countless occasions the benefit that early access to appropriate medical treatment and rehabilitation can have and how appropriate care and support going forwards can transform lives in terms of enabling people to lead independent and fulfilling lives following serious injury.

There is no doubt that people who have sustained serious injury, including traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, are amongst the people that are waiting for further investigations, operations and therapies.

It is fair to say that people who are disabled as a consequence of serious injury have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 and that even in the absence of the pandemic they were already amongst the most marginalised people in society. This makes it all the more important that support is available for the people that need it the most to bridge the gap whilst the NHS deals with the enormous backlog it is facing. It is the responsibility of all the stakeholders in our society, including private businesses such as insurance companies, who reportedly made enormous savings during the various lockdowns, to do what they can to help to alleviate this crisis and take the burden off the NHS.

It is fair to say that people who are disabled as a consequence of serious injury have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 and that even in the absence of the pandemic they were already amongst the most marginalised people in society.

Further funding to support people with disability would be most welcome given that this is an area that has been drastically under resourced even prior to the pandemic. Whether such funding will be forthcoming given the present state of the economy and the huge debt the government has had to take on to get the country through the pandemic is another matter. It is welcome that the Department of Health and Social Care last year acknowledged the problem but the commitment to provide a further £2.4 million of funding to charities to fund projects to help improve disabled people’s physical and mental wellbeing suggests that the extent of the issue has not been fully grasped given that this is a drop in the ocean compared to the level of funding that would be required to make a real material difference.

It is inevitable given the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic climate that no matter how much extra funding is provided there will still be a shortfall in terms of what is needed to give people the optimum level of support to enable them to lead as independent and fulfilling lives as possible, which of course they should be entitled to do.

The key here is to provide support in as joined-up holistic manner as possible. This means all stakeholders working with people who have sustained serious injury coming together. All people involved, from the person allocating the local authority budget, to the disability charity support worker or the lawyer supporting someone who has sustained serious injury, can provide valuable input into the best strategy. I am not suggesting that there is an easy solution to be reached but open and transparent dialogue about how best everyone can work together for the common goal has to be the best place to start.

Contact: Lime Solicitors - tel: (0207) 264 4401 email: mail@limesolicitors.co.uk web: www.limesolicitors.co.uk