Pressure is mounting on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to honour his promise to fund screening clinics for a bone-thinning disease after 56 MPs and peers backed The Mail on Sunday’s War On Osteoporosis campaign.
During the election, Mr Streeting told this newspaper that one of his first acts in Government would be to task NHS England with a ‘rollout plan’ so every part of the country has access to Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) – the gold standard in early diagnosis of the debilitating bone disease.
Osteoporosis affects more than 3.5 million people in the UK, but many do not realise they have the condition until they break a bone, by which time it is too late for preventative treatment.
Yet despite a £22.6 billion cash injection into the NHS at the Budget, there has been no funding commitment from the Government to set up the clinics, which could prevent thousands of life-changing fractures every year.
Now a group of parliamentarians have called on the Government to make good on its promise. The demand has attracted cross-party support, which includes former minister Baroness Quin, who served on Tony Blair’s frontbench, as well as Tory peer and former regional NHS chief Baroness Manzoor.
Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, the group state: ‘With the level of political consensus around these services, now has never been a better time to honour the commitment to change and save lives.’
This comes just a week after a group of prominent charities, medical societies and patient groups wrote to Mr Streeting urging him to ‘act now’.
Osteoporosis causes bones to become so fragile a break can be triggered by a cough or sneeze, and is to blame for half of all women and one in five men over 50 suffering a fracture, most often in the spine or hips.
FLS aim to investigate the cause of any bone breaks earlier in patients’ lives by carrying out a specialist bone-density test called a DEXA scan. If signs of osteoporosis are spotted, patients can be given bone-preserving drugs sooner – leading to better outcomes and fewer fractures. However, only half of hospital trusts offer the service, meaning millions are missing out on the screening.
The Mail on Sunday launched its campaign last year to expand FLS to every part of England, backed by the Royal Osteoporosis Society. It was spearheaded by the Mail’s Business Editor Ruth Sunderland, following her own osteoporosis diagnosis. In October Ruth was invited to meet the Queen, who congratulated her for raising awareness of the condition.
Last week the MoS’s drive gained the backing of GP and BBC broadcaster Dr Sarah Jarvis. The 61-year-old also revealed that last year she was diagnosed with osteoporosis after a DEXA scan found she had bones ‘like a 90-year-old’.
The cross-party parliamentarians urged the Government to fund the screening clinics, and argued that the move could save the NHS money owing to the high cost of caring for patients with severe, life-changing fractures.
‘This is a very important moment for the campaign that was started by The Mail on Sunday and the Royal Osteoporosis Society,’ says Lord Black, a Conservative peer who runs the all-party parliamentary group on osteoporosis.
‘We have very significant levels of investment going into the NHS and they need to work out how to spend that money.
‘There is cross-party support for this, but what we need is action.’
The Department of Health and Social Care was approached for comment.
Osteoporosis is a condition that weakens bones, making them fragile and more likely to break.
It develops slowly over several years and is often only diagnosed when a minor fall or sudden impact causes a bone fracture.
The most common injuries in people with osteoporosis are wrist, hip and spinal bone fractures.
However, they can also occur in other bones, such as in the arm or pelvis.
Sometimes a cough or sneeze can cause a rib fracture or the partial collapse of one of the bones of the spine.
Osteoporosis isn’t usually painful until a fracture occurs, but spinal fractures are a common cause of long-term pain.
Figures suggest 54million people have the condition in the US, while 3million are thought to suffer in the UK.