Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assistance his Department provides (a) Clinical Commissioning Groups and (b) Hospital Trusts to (i) operate Fracture Liaison Services and (ii) contribute to the Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme; and if his Department will take steps to assist Vale of York CCG and York Hospital Trust to establish a Fracture Liaison Service for York.

Services for those with osteoporosis and bone health conditions, including Fracture Liaison Services (FLS), are commissioned locally. NHS England is working with local integrated care systems (ICSs) to support the implementation of FLS and increase the number of clinics. NHS England is also developing regional bone health clinical networks to support clinicians working in FLS. The Department expects musculoskeletal, fragility fracture and fall services to be fully incorporated into ICSs’ planning, informed by the metrics available on the Model Health System (MHS) platform. NHS England has worked with the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership and the Royal College of Physicians, to ensure key performance indicators from the Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme are included within the MHS.

No specific assessment has been made of the potential for cost-effectiveness or efficiency gains of maintaining FLS or the establishment of a service in York.