The sixth annual report for the Fracture Liaison Service Database (FLS-DB), 'Rebuilding FLSs to meet local patient need', provides national benchmark performance for the care of people with fragility fractures in 2021.
The Fracture Liaison Service Database (FLS-DB) began collecting patient data in 2016. To date, 75 FLSs have submitted patient data from over 400,000 patients across the NHS in England and Wales.
This annual report presents the results of analysis on secondary fracture prevention care received by patients aged 50 and older in England and Wales in 2021, using the 11 FLS-DB key performance indicators (KPIs). These are complemented by the data from the benchmark tables and run charts which are publicly available on the FLS-DB website. The findings have been presented against data from 2019 to compare the current performance of FLSs with pre-COVID-19 level performance. For the first time in the FLS-DB audit, results have been presented for the KPIs by age, gender, care home status and geography.
The report encourages services to focus on KPI 2 and KPI 3 (identification), KPI 7 (bone therapy recommended) and KPIs 9, 10 and11 (monitoring, follow-up and adherence) for service improvement goals (80/50/80 model).
Local commissioners and FLSs should use this report to improve the effectiveness in post-fracture care delivery from existing FLSs through service improvement and additional commissioning to reduce the number of preventable fragility fractures in this high-risk patient group.
If your organisation (hospital, primary care practice, network and/or other community service) treats fractures you need to participate in the FLS-DB.
If you, or someone you know has suffered a fragility fracture we have a number of resources available to view online in the FLS-DB resource repository.
Map of England and Wales showing expected size of local fragility fracture population and achievement of case identification in 2021. The size of the circle relates to the expected local fragility fracture caseload.