DR. SARAH JARVIS: The NHS MUST screen for osteoporosis – it left me with the bones of a 90 year old and I only found out by chance

Last month, Britain’s first female chancellor gave the NHS the biggest funding boost in recent history.

The £22.6 billion injection into healthcare announced in the Autumn Budget is welcome. Record numbers of people are waiting for crucial procedures and many of our hospitals are in desperate need of renovations and new equipment.

I’m sure a lot of the money will be put to good use. However, I was saddened to see that Rachel Reeves had failed to find funding for a critical issue in women’s health.

The bone-thinning disease osteoporosis affects more than 3.5 million people in Britain, although it is much more common in women.

It causes the bones to become so weak that even coughing, sneezing or hugging a grandchild can shatter them.

Often known as the “silent disease,” patients may not realize their bones are fragile until they suffer a life-changing fracture. These fractures are the fourth leading cause of disability and premature death in Britain.

Yet osteoporosis has been overlooked by the NHS for years. Patients at risk – for example older women who have recently had a broken bone – should be screened for the disease using a bone density scan known as a DEXA scan.

If caught early, there are medications patients can take to keep their bones strong, reducing the risk of painful – sometimes life-threatening – fractures.

Yet only half of hospitals in Britain have specialist clinics – known as Fracture Liaison Services – to carry out this screening programme.

This means that thousands of patients, mainly women, remain undiagnosed and untreated. This puts their lives in danger.

As a GP and regular BBC broadcaster, I have heard many heartbreaking stories about how osteoporosis can destroy lives.

But I’ve also recently been dealing with my own personal struggle with the condition.

Growing up, I was an obsessive exerciser and the stress I put on my body caused my estrogen levels to plummet to the point where I no longer got my period.

Research shows that when the amount of sex hormone decreases, this increases the risk of osteoporosis. This is why postmenopausal women – who have very low estrogen levels – are so much more at risk for the condition.

I was also extremely deficient in vitamin D – a problem faced by many of us in the UK, given the lack of sunlight for much of the year. This also increases the risk of osteoporosis, because vitamin D helps strengthen the bones.

But it wasn’t until a friend of mine broke her hip and wrist playing tennis about eighteen months ago that I was awakened to the danger I was in.

Dr. Sarah Jarvis is a GP on BBC’s The One Show’s and also regularly appears on ITV’s This Morning and Lorraine.

She was in her mid-sixties, so only slightly older than me (I’m 61).

Shortly afterwards I asked my GP for a DEXA scan and the results were shocking. My bone density was about the same as you would expect for a 90 year old. I clearly had osteoporosis.

Fortunately, I am now receiving treatment, including daily injections that improve my bone strength. I’ve never had a fracture, although I’m still nervous about falling.

But I am acutely aware that the only reason for my osteoporosis was because, as a doctor, I knew the warning signs. I also knew I needed a DEXA scan, something many patients may not have heard of.

Without my prior knowledge, I would likely have suffered multiple fractures over the next few years. And that’s why I feel so strongly that the government must do more to identify this condition early.

I was very pleased to read earlier this year that current Health Secretary Wes Streeting had promised to make one of his first acts in government, directing NHS England to set up a ‘rollout plan’ for Fracture Liaison Services in every hospital in the country.

It seemed like a huge step in the right direction after so many years of dithering on the subject.

So it was disheartening to hear that after all, there are no immediate plans for more of these screening clinics in the budget.

The Mail on Sunday’s campaign for a national screening program for osteoporosis has caught the attention of The Queen, who praised MailOnline’s sister publication for putting the condition ‘on the map’.

Once again it seems that osteoporosis has been pushed to the back of the line and treated as a minor health problem.

This is a huge mistake, because osteoporosis will only become a bigger problem in the coming years.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) predicts that within the next twenty years almost a quarter of the UK population will be over 65. Currently that figure is just one in five.

Because the risk of osteoporosis increases with age, this means millions more people are at risk of developing these devastating fractures. This will put enormous pressure on the NHS and social care system but, more importantly, ruin the lives of many Britons.

In the future, I would also like to see a national screening program for all women over 65 and men over 75, regardless of whether they have had a fracture before.

Many other European countries offer this measure and it seems crazy to me that we often wait until people have a life-changing fracture before intervening and looking for signs of the disease.

But for now, I believe the best hope for fixing our current broken osteoporosis screening system lies in Parliament. The three main parties all participated in the elections promising to deliver Fracture Liaison Services within the next four years.

A total of 244 MPs expressed their support.

Now is the time for Labor to act, with support so strong.

On behalf of both physicians and patients, I implore Wes Streeting and Rachel Reeves: find the funding for Fracture Liaison Services and put an end to this escalating health crisis.