How to get an appointment for your child
First speak to your GP, who will decide if your child should be referred to your local paediatrician (children’s specialist). They will then work together to investigate your child's symptoms, and start any immediate treatment.
After this assessment, the paediatrician will decide if your child should be referred to another assessment team. The pan-London virtual post-COVID-19 multidisciplinary assessment team is a team of healthcare professionals who help to make decisions about support for children and families after COVID-19.
This team will decide whether more specialist input is needed. One of the options is our Evelina London post-COVID assessment service. Your child's details will then be sent to Evelina London and we will contact you with an appointment time to attend our clinic.
How to change/cancel your appointment?
Someone will call you to arrange the appointment. If you need to change your appointment, please email EvelinaPostCovidService@gstt.nhs.uk or call 020 7188 4000.
Before your child's appointment
Please complete the questionnaires sent to you by your local paediatrician or the administration team at Evelina London before your appointment. Once you have completed the questionnaires, please return them via email to: EvelinaPostCovidService@gstt.nhs.uk.
Before the appointment, it would also be helpful if you could think about how we can help your child. This might include listing any activities your child is not able to do because of their symptoms and what your child hopes to be able to do after treatment.
You may also find the “NHS Your Covid Recovery” website helpful. It has information and guidance about some of the different symptoms of long COVID tailored for children and young people, and you can find further help and support.
What to expect at your child's appointment
The team will offer a detailed assessment of the persistent symptoms affecting your child's physical and/or emotional health following COVID-19.
During the appointment, you can expect to see a:
- paediatrician (children’s doctor)
- psychiatrist and psychologist (specialists in mental health and wellbeing)
- physiotherapist (a specialist in helping people to restore their function and movement)
- occupational therapist (a specialist in helping people to take part in the activities, roles and routines that are important to them)
- and, if needed a dietitian and speech and language therapist.
Depending on the symptoms affecting your child, we may also be able to offer support from other specialties at the Evelina London.
You may meet all of the health professionals mentioned above together in a room, although some of them might join virtually (online via video call). Your child's appointment will be about two hours long. We would like to hear about the symptoms your child is having and their impact on going to school and other activities like spending time with friends and family. We will talk about physical symptoms and also emotional wellbeing.
Our paediatrician and physiotherapist will complete a short physical assessment in a separate room. This may include a physical examination, such as listening to your child's chest, checking muscle strength and checking balance.
It is unlikely that we would want your child to have a blood test at this appointment, as any blood tests needed should have already been carried out at your local hospital.
We would like to hear from parent(s), carer(s) and family about how you have been managing your child's symptoms and how it has been impacting their education and family life. We would like to speak to you all together at first, but we would also welcome the opportunity to talk to children on their own.
After your child's appointment
Towards the end of the assessment, we will give recommendations to help you manage your child's symptoms. Where possible, we will try to arrange for treatment to be provided locally to you, or virtually (by phone or video call), to limit you needing to travel long distances to attend appointments.
You can ask questions at any time if you don’t understand something or don’t understand why a decision has been made. A few weeks after the appointment, a report will be sent to you, your GP and local paediatrician, and any other health professionals as agreed during our appointment.