Fracture Liaison Services in the United Kingdom

Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) have been demonstrated to be a clinically and cost-effective means of providing secondary preventive care for patients presenting with new fragility fractures. This review summarizes the emergence and widespread adoption of the FLS model in the United Kingdom. Large scale national audits have clearly illustrated the need for FLS by revealing the care gap experienced by the majority of patients who suffer fragility fractures. Since 2003, FLS has featured increasingly more prominently in relevant national professional guidance. During the last 5 years that professional consensus has led to FLS being embedded in government policy on fracture prevention. Quality incentives have been created to encourage hospitals and primary care providers to pro-actively deliver best practice. The strategic approaches taken and lessons learned in the UK may have relevance to quality improvement efforts in other jurisdictions.