Exploring the perceptions and experiences of community rehabilitation for Long COVID from the perspectives of Scottish General Practitioners and people living with Long COVID: a qualitative study

Objectives: To explore the experience of accessing Long COVID community rehabilitation from the perspectives of people with Long COVID and General Practitioners (GPs). Design: Qualitative descriptive study employing one-to-one semi-structured virtual interviews analysed using the framework method. Setting: Four NHS Scotland territorial health boards. Participants: Eleven people with Long COVID (1 male, 10 female; aged 40-65 [mean 53], and 13 GPs (5 male, 8 female). Results: Four key themes were identified: i) The lived experience of Long COVID; ii) The challenges of an emergent and complex chronic condition; iii) Systemic challenges for Long COVID service delivery, and iv) Perceptions and experiences of Long COVID and its management, including rehabilitation. Conclusions: There are several patient, GP, and service-level barriers to accessing community rehabilitation for Long COVID. There is a need for greater understanding by the public, GPs, and other potential referrers of the role of community rehabilitation professionals in the management of Long COVID. There is also a need for community rehabilitation services to be well promoted and accessible to the people with Long COVID for whom they may be appropriate. Service providers need to consider availability and accessibility of Long COVID rehabilitation and ensure adequate interprofessional communication and collaboration to enhance the experience for people with Long COVID. ### Competing Interest Statement Edward Duncan was in receipt of research funding for the following Long COVID studies. 1. Chief Scientist Office Scotland. Long Covid and Critical Service Occupations: impact on Employees and Organisations. 2. National Institute for Health & Care Research. Caring for Long COVID in primary care: Using patient and professional experience to build co-designed solutions. A participatory, mixed methods study. 3. Scottish Government. DBI Covid Study. Alison Love is a member of Long COVID Scotland. Jacqui Morris was in receipt of the following research funding. National Institute for Health & Care Research. LOCOMOTION (long COVID multidisciplinary consortium: optimising treatments and services across the NHS (co-applicant). Alison Love is a member of Long COVID Scotland. Jane Ormerod is chair of Long COVID Scotland. All other authors have no competing interests to declare. ### Funding Statement This work was supported by the Chief Scientist Office Scotland, grant number COV/LTE/20/29 ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Wales Research Ethics Committee 6 [21/WA/0118 A03] gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request. Robert Gordon University holds the copyright for the full interview transcripts and may grant data sharing permission on request