Some of Oliver’s frustrations are shared by tick-born disease specialists who say that standards within the NHS and private institutions aren’t good enough.
Georgia Tuckey who is a tick-born disease specialist and clinician in Worthing said: “We have a particular way of understanding symptom presentation…that’s what we’re looking for.
“And that isn’t looked for generally in the context of NHS investigations,” she said.
There are around 1,500 laboratory-confirmed cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales each year, although it is estimated that there are 3,000 to 4,000 patients treated by doctors without a confirmed diagnosis.
Mrs Tuckey believes by only using ‘laboratory-confirmed’ data it “doesn’t support investing” in Lyme research or training because the actual number of cases “should be much higher”.
The UKHSA said: “We know that there are many more cases diagnosed on clinical grounds that receive treatment without testing…
“Further work is being carried out by UKHSA to get recent, updated data to gain further understanding of the incidence of Lyme disease.