PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Osteoporosis: Screening (11 March 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of community diagnostic centres carried out DEXA scanning in 2023; and how many DEXA scans were conducted in community diagnostic centres (a) in total and (b) in each centre.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans were recommended as part of the Sir Mike Richards Diagnostics Recovery and Renewal report as an additional service that could be offered in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) in addition to the core recommended services, and provision of it in CDCs will be determined locally.

As of the end of December 2023, 15 CDCs had reported carrying out DEXA scanning in 2023. The number of CDCs operational at the end of December 2023 was 141. The proportion of the total number of CDCs offering DEXA scans, therefore, was 10.6% as of the end of December 2023.

The total number of DEXA scans conducted in CDCs from 1 January to 31 December 2023 was 25,879. This is published monthly as of April 2023 as part of NHS Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity Data (DM01), which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostics-waiting-times-and-activity/monthly-diagnostics-waiting-times-and-activity/

We do not hold the number of DEXA scans in each CDC in the format requested and this data can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Answered by:
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative)
21 March 2024