Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether medical guidelines encourage medical professionals to recommend all people over the age of 50 who suffer a bone fracture to be scanned for osteoporosis.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published best practice clinical guidance on assessing and managing the risk of fragility fractures in people aged 18 years old and over with osteoporosis. The guidance recommends considering assessment of fracture risk in women aged under 65 years old and men aged under 75 years old in the presence of risk factors, such as a previous fragility fracture. The guidance, ‘Osteoporosis: assessing the risk of fragility fracture’, is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg146/resources/osteoporosis-assessing-the-risk-of-fragility-fracture-pdf-35109574194373

NICE guidelines represent best practice and health and care professionals, including commissioners, are expected to take them fully into account in their decisions. However, these guidelines are not mandatory and do not replace the judgement of clinicians in determining the most appropriate treatment for individual patients.