An audit carried out by the Royal College of Physicians’ has revealed that too many NHS Trusts are failing to prevent recurrent falls and fractures. The audit also found that many patients who could benefit from treatment to prevent broken bones are missing out.
Juliette Brown, Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the National Osteoporosis Society said: “Whilst it is encouraging to see that there has been some improvement, these findings show unacceptable gaps in the provision of care that will result in needless pain, disability and premature deaths. As well as the human cost, we know that dedicated services to assess fracture patients for fragile bones can save the NHS money. By assessing people early, the huge cost of treating further fractures can be avoided. It's an obvious solution to a huge problem that could be tackled by including osteoporosis in the UK-wide GP contract, through the Quality and Outcomes Framework.”
When someone over the age of 50 suffers a fracture, it could be a sign of osteoporosis. If this is discovered early, further fractures can be prevented, saving a lot of disability, pain and costs to the NHS. However, many patients do not receive any evaluation after a fracture so are unaware of underlying problems.
Every year there are 300,000 fractures due to fragile bones, many of which could be prevented and every month, 1,150 people are dying prematurely as a result of hip fractures. The audit revealed that 2/3 of older people who had fractured a wrist, arm, pelvis or spine were missing out on the opportunity to access treatment to prevent more broken bones and that 40% of hip fracture patients were also missing out on treatment.
The cost to the NHS is huge too, the combined cost of hospital and social care for patients with a hip fracture amounts to more than £2.3billion per year in the UK – that’s approximately £6 million a day.
