Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage NHS England to develop specialist services for Lyme disease patients.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection and most people recover completely with prompt antibiotic treatment that reduces the risk of further symptoms developing and increases the chance of complete recovery. NHS England specialised services are not the responsible commissioner for treatment of Lyme disease: Lyme disease is diagnosed and treated in primary care or in clinical commissioning groups’ infectious diseases hospital services according to the Prescribed Services Manual.

The Department has funded four independent systematic reviews, published at the end of 2017, to further strengthen the evidence base for epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Lyme disease. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recently published its clinical guideline on Lyme disease, which provides the latest information for clinicians in diagnosing and managing Lyme disease. The guideline aims to raise awareness of when Lyme disease should be considered and to ensure that people have prompt and consistent diagnosis and treatment.