MPs are in favour of establishing special clinics for Long Covid patients to tackle fragmented treatment across the country.

ChristenUnie MP Nico Drost tabled a motion to the effect during Wednesday’s debate about the social impact of the illness.

Drost said patients were to often “caught up in a medical merry-go-round” and that they need a central, dedicated clinic where they can get the care they need.

Some 450,000 people are suffering from Long Covid following an infection with the virus, around 90,000 of whom are seriously disabled by the condition.

Effects include extreme tiredness, confusion and loss of concentration. The varied nature of the complaints is such that people are being sent from pillar to post, Drost said.

The MP said the clinics would have to be opened across the country so people could have access to them without having to travel long distances. Where the medical specialists or the money to set up the clinics would have to come from, Drost did not specify.

Apart from the clinics, ChristenUnie and GroenLinks-PvdA also want a more generous compensation package for care workers with Long Covid.

Care workers accounted for a high proportion of infections in the first wave of coronavirus in the spring of 2020, when they were exempted from many of the quarantine restrictions so they could keep working on infected wards without proper PPE.