{"id":689,"date":"2021-01-19T00:38:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T00:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauks-dr-kaveri-jalundhwala-speaks-to-the-bma-about-her-experience-with-long-covid\/"},"modified":"2021-01-19T00:38:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T00:38:54","slug":"dauks-dr-kaveri-jalundhwala-speaks-to-the-bma-about-her-experience-with-long-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauks-dr-kaveri-jalundhwala-speaks-to-the-bma-about-her-experience-with-long-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK’s Dr Kaveri Jalundhwala speaks to the BMA about her experience with Long Covid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One doctor with long COVID, who has faced debilitating symptoms and a pay cut, is calling on employers to be more proactive<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kaveri
Image from the BMA – Dr Jalundhwala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kaveri Jalundhwala is losing income and faces an extension of her GP training after contracting COVID-19 at work while on a hospital placement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uncertainty, on top of debilitating ongoing symptoms, has been very difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I became ill on 30 March and had all the usual symptoms, and after a week I felt better and went back to work. I was sent to a COVID ward and worked there for three days while I was still coughing, but I didn\u2019t have fever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Then I got another fever, so I isolated again and then I started really struggling with shortness of breath and that\u2019s been my primary symptom for three months. After that my main symptom was fatigue, which I\u2019m still struggling with now.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Jalundhwala, 28, is doing an extended phased return on a GP placement in the Thames Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had three months sick pay, followed by two months working 60 per cent, and is now working 80 per cent, all remote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I got the full pay while I was on sick leave but then they put me on less than full time pay, so I was paid 60 per cent for two months and now I\u2019m paid 80 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Someone on the Facebook group highlighted to me that I shouldn\u2019t have had my pay cut at all, so I\u2019m following that up with my employers,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Losing 40 per cent of income is always hard \u2013 especially when you still have around \u00a326,000 in student loans still to pay off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m lucky, I\u2019ve got savings and my husband has a good job so we\u2019re managing OK at the moment. But I\u2019ve heard of people who have lost their jobs, which is just terrible.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is also concerned about what will happen when she rotates to her next hospital placement, which is due to be emergency medicine \u2013 something she won\u2019t be able to do from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Hopefully I\u2019ll be better, but there are still days when I just can\u2019t do it, no matter how much I push myself. I think I\u2019ll be working eight-hour shifts but I\u2019m struggling to get in contact with anybody to find out if there\u2019s any flexibility in this. I\u2019ll be going to 60 per cent, so that will be a big cut in pay again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It will also mean more months of working as a trainee, which is fine for me, because that\u2019s just how it is, but it wouldn\u2019t be fine for everybody.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is finding it difficult to deal with the situation, particularly as she has problems concentrating because of her long COVID. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I think it would help if employers were more proactive and when people are sick for a long time, I think they should be reaching out to find out what is happening. It\u2019s also difficult to find out information, for example what is the situation with sick pay. Some days I\u2019ve felt I don\u2019t have the energy to do this as well as my work, so obviously I prioritise my work. It\u2019s very difficult all round.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here: https:\/\/www.bma.org.uk\/news-and-opinion\/living-with-covid<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One doctor with long COVID, who has faced debilitating symptoms and a pay cut, is calling on employers to be more proactive Kaveri Jalundhwala is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,29,58],"tags":[389,44,38,301,325,390,363,33,34,35,42],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-protect-the-frontline","category-the-nhs","tag-bma","tag-covid-19","tag-dauk","tag-dauks-gp-committee","tag-dr-kaveri-jalundhwala","tag-gp-training","tag-long-covid","tag-press","tag-press-covid-19","tag-protect-the-frontline","tag-the-doctors-association-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}