Fractured care

THE commendable work of the National Osteoporosis Society has become even more prominent thanks to the charity’s successful association with its patron, the Duchess of Cornwall, whose own mother died from the bone disease.

By The Newsroom

Published 27th Jun 2011, 09:28 BST

Nevertheless, the charity’s work will become even more fundamental in the years ahead after it emerged that treatment costs could treble over the next 25 years to £6bn unless urgent steps are taken to improve treatment and diagnosis.

In short, procedures need overhauling now to ensure that the finances of the NHS are not compromised by leaders, and accountants, who do not fully appreciate the medical implications of brittle bones, hip fractures and so forth.

Yet, while the Government says this mindset will be changed when medical professionals are put at the vanguard of local decision-making, can this be guaranteed when GPs, doctors and nurses will, inevitably, have so many competing priorities?

What is required is a national framework that sets out the standards of care that patients can expect. After all, it is supposed to the National Health Service rather than a postcode lottery.

Government NHS