Wes salutes Express crusade with rollout of bone scanners

HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting saluted the Sunday Express's Better Bones campaign in announcing the rollout of 20 new bone scanners today.

- BY DAVID WILLIAMSON

The minister said this will ensure tens of thousands of patients are treated for osteoporosis at an earlier stage.

Campaigners welcomed the news but urged him to go further and deliver on his pre-election pledge to end a postcode lottery which means around half of NHS trusts lack basic "fracture liaison services". These check for the potentially fatal disease when people first show up with a break.

Mr Streeting said the situation "has to change" as he announced the new Dexa scanners, described by the Department of Health and Social Care as the "gold standard for diagnosing osteoporosis and assessing fracture risk".

He said: "Too many women are suffering painful, preventable fractures because osteoporosis is diag nosed too late. That has to change.