Author Archive for: FLS

With the recent new additions to Osteoporosis Canada’s FLS Registry, we now have 52 FLSs in Canada.
Fracture Liaison Services (FLSs) began to be established in Canada in 2002 at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. There has been slow progress since with the establishment of FLSs in 6 provinces at this point, including one province with universal access (Prince Edward Island). PEI is currently the only province in Canada where FLS is available for every resident who suffers a fragility fracture of the hip, wrist, shoulder or pelvis.

My grandmother’s broken hip was never repaired thus her last 7 years of life consisted of lying in her bed in a long-term care home. Her life was fractured as well as her family’s as they supported her through her final years. For Grammie, her fracture meant leaving the family home with its wide veranda next door to her kids and entering “the Mount”. Now family visits consisted of cramming into a dim, shared room with interruptions by staff and other residents all while trying to avert your eyes from Grammie’s misaligned leg under the covers, her increasing dementia and her institutional existence.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on healthcare services and FLSs have not been immune.  Many FLSs across the country have been temporarily suspended as their staff was redeployed to pandemic efforts.  Of those FLSs which remained operational, the FLS coordinators had to quickly adapt to the marked reduction (or total lack thereof) […]