Post-COVID-19 Condition in Swiss Healthcare: Disparities in Access, Delays in Care, and Patient Burden, 2026, Diem et al.

[Chandelier]

Post-COVID-19 Condition in Swiss Healthcare: Disparities in Access, Delays in Care, and Patient Burden

Spoiler: Authors

Diem, Lara; Dampfhoffer, Ariane; Weber, Elisabeth; Fretz, Gregory; Nehme, Mayssam; Penner, Iris-Katharina

Abstract​

Background: Post-COVID-19 Condition (PCC) causes persistent multisystem symptoms, reduced quality of life, and high healthcare needs. Data on patient experiences in Switzerland are scarce.
Objective: To assess healthcare access, treatment pathways, waiting times, and insurance-related burden among individuals with PCC in Switzerland.
Methods: We conducted a nationwide anonymous online survey between July and October 2025.
Adults living in Switzerland with symptoms persisting ≥12 weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection were eligible.
Recruitment was conducted through support groups, social media, and specialized PCC consultations at several Swiss hospitals.
The multilingual questionnaire covered demographics, symptoms, healthcare utilization, treatment experiences, and insurance issues.
Results: A total of 333 individuals participated (81.7% women; mean age 45.8 years). The most frequent symptoms were fatigue (98.5%), brain fog (92.5%), post-exertional malaise (91.0%), sleep disturbances (82.3%), and musculoskeletal pain (80.8%).
Only 12.6% reported early and adequate medical support, whereas 45.0% had to actively seek care themselves and 24.6% had received no support.
General practitioners were the most frequently consulted providers (77.5%), followed by specialized PCC clinics (39.0%).
Waiting times were prolonged: 32.1% waited 4–6 months, 32.4% >6 months and 10.8% reported no available consultation service.
Satisfaction with care was modest (3.02/5).
Difficulties with social insurance were reported by 42.6%, including missing benefits, lack of recognition, and prolonged procedures.
Conclusions: Individuals with PCC in Switzerland face major barriers to timely and coordinated care.
Strengthening primary care competencies, expanding multidisciplinary services, and implementing structured patient-centered pathways are urgently needed to improve outcomes and reduce long-term disability.


Web | DOI | Healthcare | Open Access

 

[Chandelier]

More information about Lara Diem, the main author of this study, can be found here:

Post in thread 'Brain Retraining treatment for ME/CFS and Long COVID - discussion thread'

Jun 21, 2026

I wrote the following as a reply to her post on LinkedIn:

An interview from the same journalist with pro brain-retraining neuroimmunologist Lara Diem, co-author of these papers:

The Role of Neurorehabilitation in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome 2023

Chronic fatigue and headache in post-COVID-19 syndrome: a radiological and clinical evaluation, 2025

Multidimensional phenotyping of the post-COVID-19 syndrome: A Swiss survey study, 2022...

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[rvallee]

Satisfaction with care was modest (3.02/5).

Ah, there it is. It's never taken into account, but satisfaction scores in health care are massively inflated, probably more than any other. This basically rates closer to a 1/5, in almost any other context poor service like this wouldn't rate much more, and here in large part because of things unrelated to outcomes. All it takes is a warm body that isn't too insulting and they basically get a passing grade. Outcomes are a minor part of this evaluation, almost irrelevant, probably no more than a .5/5.

And I get it. Other than getting the wrong person at a bad time, health care workers really do try their best. I have had several interactions recently, for unrelated reasons, and I have nothing but good thing to say about most of it. It all depends on how much weight outcomes have in that evaluation. And that sometimes not being able to improve outcomes is inevitable, but this is clearly not the case here.

So pretty much all scores have to take this into account, and work from the basis that a 3/5 is actually much closer to a 1/5. This is simply never acknowledged, in fact it's often exploited. Same with all the natural outcomes being exploited, and retro-attributed to some BS treatment model. It's probably not explicitly intentional, it's just that no one bothers accounting for it. Some biases are good. Some are very bad.

Because imagine how bad the health care that would truly rate 1/5 would have to be. Short of harvesting organs, I don't really think it could naturally get there. There is a floor that is almost impossible to breach past from simply being a normal human being. This is why the alternative medicine industry is so big and profitable. It doesn't just apply to scientific medicine, it applies to everything remotely connected to health and wellness. People keep spending money on treatments that do nothing. And services that do nothing keep getting funded, in large part because of this distortion.

Individuals with PCC in Switzerland face major barriers to timely and coordinated care

There isn't any care. A consequence of decades of bad decisions, none of which have changed yet. More care wouldn't do anything, you can add zeros all you want, it won't change a thing. And it's true everywhere, which is also entirely missing from all discussions. It's awful everywhere, has always been, because of so many awful choices being made without proper evaluation.

 

[Chandelier]

Conclusions: Individuals with PCC in Switzerland face major barriers to timely and coordinated care.
Strengthening primary care competencies, expanding multidisciplinary services, and implementing structured patient-centered pathways are urgently needed to improve outcomes and reduce long-term disability.

Reduce long-term disability.
Given the interview with the main author Diem that I linked upthread, I wonder whether this translates to:

If we could advice the patients to take brain retraining courses before they are bed bound, some would recover.