Labour has been accused of engaging in “creative accounting” and “smoke and mirrors” instead of delivering on a campaign promise to end the postcode lottery when it comes to potentially life-saving services to identify and treat osteoporosis. Campaigners say the slow rate of progress at ensuring everyone has access to “fracture liaison services” (FLS) means the roll-out may take 38 years and 40,000 people may die needlessly.
The Government was challenged in the Lords on its pledge to ensure FLS are available in all parts of the country by 2030. Health Minister Baroness Merron claimed that 23 of England’s 25 newly reconfigured Integrated Care Board (ICB) areas now contain at least one FLS.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) says that statistic gives a misleading impression because the “NHS administrative map has changed” but the “underlying service footprint has barely moved”. It claims since Labour came to power, only 4,500 extra patients are being seen out of the unserved population of 119,000 in England. Around half of NHS trusts in England still lack a FLS to provide checks for osteoporosis when someone turns up with a fracture for the first time.
Under Labour’s changes, 42 ICBs have now reduced to just 25, and in some cases these serve more than four million people. The charity highlights how the North East London ICB serves around 2.2 million people but has just one FLS; it argues this “cannot reasonably be regarded as providing meaningful access across the entire ICB”.
It adds that in Devon and Cornwall ICB there is a “4.5-hour round trip” for patients in Devon to reach the only FLS in Truro.
Conservative peer Baroness Altmann said: “I’m afraid this is just smoke and mirrors. Ministers promised universal fracture liaison services by 2030. They cannot now redraw NHS boundaries [and] pretend that patients have gained access to care that simply does not exist. One hospital-based service cannot possibly provide meaningful access across an NHS region serving three or four million people. Patients deserve treatment, follow-up and honesty – not creative accounting.”
Tory peer Lord Black states in a letter to Baroness Merron: “Administrative reorganisation is not rollout. Merging NHS organisations does not create a single new FLS. It does not expand patient access. It does not prevent a single hip fracture.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told the Sunday Express: “This Government remains committed to rolling out fracture liaison services by 2030, as set out in our 10 Year Health Plan and the Women’s Health Strategy. But we’re also taking action in the meantime by investing in 20 new state-of-the-art DEXA scanners across the country, building on the first wave of 13 last year. These new machines will help diagnose fragile bones earlier and prevent painful, life-changing fractures – particularly among older people and women, who are disproportionately affected by osteoporosis.”