People living with Lyme disease in British Columbia can’t get adequate medical treatment here.

This was supposed to change with the launch of the Complex Chronic Disease Program at Women’s Hospital in 2013.

The Program was created to provide treatment for patients with Lyme disease, however, when finally accepted into the Program, instead of treatment for a bacterial infection, patients only received cognitive therapy and suggestions for exercise pacing.

We need to find out what happened behind the scenes and help the Program get back on the right track.

To help us do that several months ago we filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

An FOI request enables citizens like us to access internal government documents.

In this case we wanted to access internal documents about the Complex Chronic Disease Program and find out why a program that was launched to treat Lyme disease suddenly began to flounder.

In the past we have used FOI's with great success.

In 2011, we forced the release of the "Schmidt Report", written by the BC’s government’s own expert, which said they were doing an abysmal job of managing, diagnosing, and treating Lyme disease. You can read that groundbreaking report here. The release of the Schmidt Report triggered the BC government's announcement of the Complex Chronic Disease Program. The day after the story broke in the media, the government announced funding for the Program and hope for Lyme disease patients.

This is where you come in.

When we filed our latest FOI regarding the Complex Chronic Disease Program, the government said the records wouldn’t “contribute positively to the public interest,” and that we would need to pay $2,160 in order to access the information!

As Lyme disease patients, we don’t have that type of money. But if each of us contributes $5, $10 or $15, we can access records that will help hold this government accountable and get the Program back on the right track.

We have excellent news. Dr. Liz Zubek, who was a doctor at the Complex Chronic Disease Program (before she resigned in disgust), is matching every dollar we raise!

You read that correctly. For every dollar that we raise Dr. Zubek will match it, dollar for dollar. As someone who worked at the Program, she understands that these important health records are in the public interest.

Thanks for taking action. Together we can do this!