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Labour Ministers are coming under mounting pressure to honour pledges to end the ‘postcode lottery’ of treatment for bone fractures and save thousands of lives a year.Campaigners are backing plans to change the law to force the Government to ensure that the whole of England and Wales is covered by proper NHS services for osteoporosis.After a campaign by The Mail on Sunday and the Royal Osteoporosis Society, former Health Secretary Wes Streeting made a pre-election promise to deliver universal fracture liaison services by 2030.But the ROS claims Ministers have failed to make any progress on providing 60 new ‘Fracture Liaison Services’ (FLS’s) clinics to treat osteoporosis.Now ROS and other campaigners are supporting Tory plans to amend the Government’s own Health Bill to enshrine the roll-out of the clinics in law and require Ministers to publish an annual progress report on doing so.ROS chief executive Craig Jones said: ‘With 2,000 people dying every year from fractures that these clinics prevent, the stakes could not be higher.‘Two years on from the Government’s commitment to nationwide rollout, patients are still waiting to see a delivery plan, funding arrangements or milestones for progress.’Tory MP and hospital consultant Caroline Johnson, who has tabled the amendment, challenged Ministers to keep faith with ‘patients who believed’ their previous pledges. Before the election, former Health Secretary Wes Streeting pledged to introduce universal fracture liaison services by 2030She said: ‘Labour promised universal, high-quality fracture liaison services by 2030.‘If Ministers are serious about keeping their promise, they should have no difficulty supporting this amendment.’Last month, the Daily Mail’s Ruth Sunderland was honoured with an OBE after leading a campaign to improve diagnosis and treatment for osteoporosis sufferers.She was diagnosed with the bone disease after an accident in 2023 while training for a half-marathon.On Saturday, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson insisted that the Government ‘remains committed to rolling out fracture liaison services by 2030, as set out in our 10-Year Health Plan’.But the DHSC said it was also taking action in the meantime by investing in 20 new state-of-the-art ‘DEXA scanners’ across the country’ on top of 13 installed last year.The scanners would ‘help diagnose fragile bones earlier and prevent painful, life-changing fractures’.
