Minister vows to boost NHS bone diagnosis

HEALTH Secretary Victoria Atkins has pledged to step up osteoporosis diagnosis and care, as she praised the Sunday Express’s campaign.

Our Better Bones crusade calls for specialist clinics in every area to scan over-50s for the devastating condition.

Fracture Liaison Services could save up to 8,000 lives in the next five years by ending a cruel postcode lottery for treatment.

The minister visited an FLS at Southend, Essex, last week and vowed to create women’s health hubs in all parts of Britain to diagnose and treat conditions such as osteoporosis. But she stopped short of promising £30 million a year needed to set up specialist clinics, like the one she visited, in every NHS Trust.

A new health strategy on how treatment of conditions such as osteoporosis will be improved for both women and men is on its way, she declared.

Ms Atkins said: “This is a really important issue and I thank the

Sunday Express for raising awareness and campaigning on it.

“We know osteoporosis disproportionately affects women. We want to use the women’s health hubs as centres for help, advice and diagnosis.”

About 3.5 million people in the UK have osteoporosis, which weakens bones and raises the risk of fractures.

But Craig Jones, of the Royal Osteoporosis Society, said: “We must ask Ms Atkins: what’s the plan to extend the life-saving services enjoyed by the people of Essex to the rest of the country? It’s indefensible people’s risk of a broken hip – a heart attack-level event – is greater in Nottinghamshire than Essex. These injuries kill a third of sufferers in a year.”

Some 270 MPS and peers, and 52 organisations, support our campaign.

‘Injuries kill third of sufferers’