The "huge impact" of long Covid-19 is still being felt by hundreds of Suffolk and north Essex patients, an NHS trust has said.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which manages the Ipswich and Colchester Hospitals, look after those that have had coronavirus symptoms that have continued for more than 12 weeks.

Its care coordination centre (CCC) - which manages onward referrals from the Suffolk and North East Essex Long COVID-19 Assessment Service (SNELCAS) - has received 278 referrals for assessment since the service launched in December and gone onto make 365 onward referrals.

Nicky Bullard, ESNEFT's CCC service manager, said: “Long COVID-19 can have a huge impact on people and can affect them in lots of different ways, which means they may need ongoing support from more than one service.

“The service has been very well received by patients since it launched as we are able to put everything in place which they may need and track them through their recovery, in turn making sure they don’t fall through any gaps between services."

People with pain, fatigue, and a persistent high temperature are referred to the right service, which can include physiotherapy, speech, and language therapy, dietetics, and Wellbeing Suffolk and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

These patients are then tracked to make sure they receive the care they need, while the team also arrange to follow up at 12 and 26 weeks to check whether they can be discharged.

The Your Covid Recovery NHS website contains general information on all aspects of recovering from COVID-19.