Fracture Liaison Services

Baroness Murphy Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The 10-year health plan also highlights community-based models of fracture prevention services, which will be very much at the core of neighbourhood health services; that is one of the key changes we are making. It is important to emphasise, as I have done before at this Dispatch Box, that decisions are rightly made at a local level, that that is how local populations are best served and that that will continue.

[Baroness Murphy (CB)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My noble friend knows that leaving it to local services is simply not providing—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

It is the turn of the Cross Benches. We will then hear from the Labour Benches.

[Baroness Murphy (CB)]

My Lords, fractures of the hip are killers for people in old age. Up to 25,000 older people die every year after a hip fracture, usually several years before their allotted time. Does it not seem to the Minister that we should give more energy to getting these fracture liaison services, which are incredibly cheap, up and running in every district? Scotland has done it. Northern Ireland has done it. I do not understand why England and Wales cannot do it, too.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

We are extending services. The noble Baroness’s observation on the implication of not dealing with this issue is quite right, which is why I talked about the whole pathway of fracture prevention. For example, on prevention, we have invested £2.6 million in 20 new, state-of-the-art DEXA scanners across the country. That builds on the first wave of investment, with £1.9 million invested in 13 of them last year, which massively increases capacity. I share noble Lords’ wish to see us do as much as we can, which is why we are taking a whole approach to this matter in terms of prevention, diagnosis and treatment.