Henry Smith MP has visited Bridge Medical Centre in Three Bridges to see for himself the treatment that is available to people through the Crawley Fracture Liaison Service.

Commenting, Henry said;

“I was reassured to visit the Fracture Liaison Service, and to have the opportunity to discuss their work. I was pleased to speak to Dr Alun Cooper about how the service is helping people in Three Bridges and further afield.”

Crawley’s FLS was the first to be based in primary care, through GP practices, rather than in hospital.

A Fracture Liaison Service is a dedicated clinical service that systematically identifies all patients within a local population who have suffered a fragility fracture, and takes action to reduce the risk of further fractures.

Henry continued;

“It was also fascinating to hear from Mary Elliott, Lead Fracture Liaison Nurse Specialist for NHS West Sussex, as well as Edward Smith from the National Osteoporosis Society.

“I am pleased to see that what started out a few years ago as a pilot for a new model of care, is working with the Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group to support new, innovative ways of working with local patients.

“It was fantastic to see the Crawley Fracture Liaison Service win the British Society for Rheumatology Best Practice Award last year, and I was encouraged by their plans for the future.”

Commenting on this win last year, Mrs Elliott said;

“The Crawley Fracture Liaison Service works with patients at a higher risk of future fractures. The project is about identifying these people to provide assessment, intervention, support and follow up within their local GP Surgery.

“Our service is about taking a patient-centred approach to care and we use patient feedback questionnaires to maintain and constantly improve on patient safety and the quality of care we give. Through questionnaire feedback 96% of our patients told us they found the service ‘very helpful’.”