Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many clinical commissioning groups in England provide a fracture liaison service.

The provision of fracture liaison services (FLS) and falls services is a matter for local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and data on numbers is not collected centrally. NHS England advises that it is aware that provision of good FLS is not uniform across the country and is working with CCGs to support them to develop appropriate local services. It also advises that the FLS model recommended by the International Osteoporosis Foundation and the National Osteoporosis society is recognised as best practice and is being promoted. In addition to this, the guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) ‘Falls: assessment and prevention of falls in older people’ sets out best practice for clinicians on the management of patients aged 65 and over who are susceptible to falls.

Regarding the cost to the National Health Service of treating fractures attributable to osteoporosis, whilst programme budgeting data provides figures for annual NHS spend on musculoskeletal services in England, the cost of treating individual musculoskeletal conditions, such as osteoporosis or specific services such as FLS, is not available as part of this.

Information concerning the number of people affected by osteoporosis in each of the last five years is not collected. NICE estimates that over 300,000 patients present with fragility fractures to hospitals in the United Kingdom each year.