A leading health charity has accused the current UK government of making "deeply misleading" claims regarding improvements to services for patients with osteoporosis. The Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS), which has Queen Camilla as its president, has formally complained to the UK Statistics Authority, asserting that official figures are being misrepresented to suggest the successful nationwide rollout of specialist clinics.
The ROS states that only half of NHS trusts currently offer Fracture Liaison Services (FLS), despite a pre-election commitment for these services to be universally available by 2030. The charity, along with The Mail on Sunday, has been campaigning since 2024 for the government to fulfill its promise to implement FLS, which they believe could prevent thousands of fractures and save lives.
During the 2024 General Election campaign, then-shadow health secretary Wes Streeting described the delivery of FLS nationwide as one of his "first acts" in government. However, the ROS has raised concerns with Health Secretary Yvette Cooper following remarks made by health ministers Gillian Merron and Karin Smyth. Baroness Merron stated last month that 23 out of 25 Integrated Care Boards in England now have FLS, while Mrs Smyth informed MPs that "92 per cent of the country is now covered."
The ROS disputes these figures, arguing that there has been no substantial increase in patient services. Instead, they contend that the reported progress is based on the administrative redrawing of NHS boundaries. Ruth Wakeman, a director at the ROS, stated that "Redrawing the lines on an NHS map does not create new services or give patients meaningful new access to care," adding that "Patients have been given a deeply misleading picture of progress."
Lord Black, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Osteoporosis, has also written to parliamentarians to protest the government's use of what he describes as "misleading figures."
Osteoporosis affects approximately 3.5 million people in the UK, predominantly women. The condition makes individuals vulnerable to debilitating fractures if left undiagnosed. The FLS clinics, integrated within NHS trusts, are designed to assess patients for the disease after their first fracture. The ROS estimates that implementing these services widely could prevent 74,000 broken bones over a five-year period.
A consultant from Cambridge University Hospitals, Dr. Madhavi Vindlacheruvu, also commented that "Redrawing NHS boundaries does not create a single new Fracture Liaison Service."
The Department of Health responded by reaffirming the government's commitment to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services by 2030 and highlighted an investment in 20 new state-of-the-art DEXA scanners for bone density testing.