Perceptions and experiences of different Long COVID community rehabilitation service models from the perspectives of people living with Long COVID and healthcare professionals

Objectives: To explore the perceptions and experiences of barriers and facilitators to accessing Long COVID community rehabilitation. Design: We used a qualitative descriptive design over two rounds of data collection with three participant groups: i) people with experience of rehabilitation for Long COVID (PwLC), ii) NHS staff delivering and/or managing community rehabilitation services (allied health professionals (AHPs)), and iii) NHS staff involved in strategic planning around Long COVID in their health board (Long COVID leads). Setting: Four NHS Scotland territorial health boards. Participants: 51 interviews: eight Long COVID leads (11 interviews), 15 AHPs (25 interviews), and 15 PwLC (15 interviews). Results: Three key themes were identified: i) Accessing care for PwLC, ii) Understanding Long COVID and its management, and iii) Strengths and limitations of existing Long COVID rehabilitation services. Conclusions: Organisational delivery of Long COVID community rehabilitation is complex and presents multiple challenges. In addition, access to Long COVID community rehabilitation can be challenging. When accessed, these services are valued by PwLC but require adequate planning, publicity, and resource. The findings presented here can be used by those developing and delivering services for people with Long COVID. ### Competing Interest Statement All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: all authors had financial support from the Chief Scientist Office Scotland (grant number COV/LTE/20/29) for the submitted work; ED has received research grants from NIHR and Scottish Government for the following studies: Caring for Long COVID in primary care and DBI COVID study, respectively; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. ### 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: Ethical approval was granted from the Wales Research Ethics Committee 6 [21/WA/0118], and each of the four health boards granted R&D management approval. 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 to the authors