Breakthrough in battle against osteoporosis will give hope to millions

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has renewed his pledge to the Sunday Express to extremity a postcode lottery causing radical to dice aboriginal aft opportunities to place osteoporosis are missed.

The Government has doubled-down connected its committedness to present specializer bony clinics crossed England by 2030 which volition trial radical suffering a fracture for the perchance lethal bony disease.

Campaigners were dismayed erstwhile instructions to roll-out the clinics, called fracture liaison services (FLS), were not included successful the NHS readying guidance that sets priorities for the wellness service.

This fuelled fears the curate was rowing backmost connected his pre-election committedness to the Sunday Express Better Bones campaign, successful conjunction with the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS), to grow the usage of FLS to each integrated attraction committee successful England and execute 100% sum by 2030.

But a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson has present told us: “We stay committed to rolling retired FLS crossed each portion of the state by 2030.

“That is what the Secretary of State promised earlier the election, and what helium is delivering.

“In the meantime, we are investing successful 13 high-tech Dexa scanners, which are expected to supply an other 29,000 scans to guarantee radical with bony conditions get diagnosed earlier.”

Craig Jones, main enforcement of the ROS, said: “We’re pleased and encouraged that ministers person confirmed successful Government their program to rotation retired these fracture services to each country by 2030.

“We’ll bash each we tin to enactment them successful delivering it, truthful this tin beryllium a large illustration of prevention successful enactment nether the caller Government.”

Campaigners had warned patients and the NHS faced a “disaster”. Only fractional of NHS Trusts successful England person a fracture liaison work – which the ROS says leaves “90,000 radical without attraction and susceptible to life-threatening fractures”. It claims “more than 1,100 radical person already died from preventable hep fractures since the Health Secretary promised to extremity the postcode lottery for life-saving osteoporosis services successful May past year”.

Emma Clark, a prof of objective musculoskeletal epidemiology and a advisor rheumatologist, was disappointed astatine the lack of instructions to the services successful spot successful the astir caller guidance, saying: “This is disastrous for radical with breached bones and osteoporosis. The NHS is missing retired connected redeeming lives and money, and radical volition needlessly acquisition the devastation that follows breached bones.

“This determination is simply a mendacious system and exceedingly disappointing for each older radical successful our country.”

Dr Tahir Masud, a advisor doc successful geriatric and wide medicine, said: “My colleagues and I are hugely disappointed that fracture liaison services person not been included successful the 2025 NHS readying guidance. This work is the cardinal successful identifying patients astatine precocious hazard of aboriginal fractures.”

Professor Nicholas Harvey, president of the International Osteoporosis Foundation, said: “It is highly disappointing that proviso for fracture liaison services has not been included successful the 2025 NHS readying guidance. This is to the tremendous detriment of the much than fractional a cardinal older adults who volition acquisition a breached bony successful the coming year, with each the associated pain, disablement and premature death.”