Parliamentary Roundtable meeting 19 Oct 2017

Osteoporosis Australia (an active member of the SOS Fracture Alliance) organised a parliamentary roundtable meeting with the Federal Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Indigenous Health, the Hon Ken Wyatt, and the Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health, the Hon Julie Collins. The meeting took place at Parliament House in Canberra on 19 October 2017 and was a great success.

A number of Australian experts were invited to participate in this roundtable, including Prof Close (National Hip Fracture Registry), Prof Eisman (Garvan Institute of Medical Research), Prof Croucher (ANZBMS), Prof Sanders (Institute for Health and Ageing, ACU), and Prof March (Global Fracture Network) and A/Prof Major (Australian Rheumatology Association). All of these organisations are members of the SOS Fracture Alliance, which was represented by Prof Seibel. Paul Mitchell, global expert on systematic approaches to chronic disease management also participated in this meeting. More information about the meeting can be found on the Osteoporosis Australia website: https://www.osteoporosis.org.au/ministerial-roundtable.

I am very pleased to share with you the key outcome from this meeting: the Minister and Shadow Minister requested a submission on secondary fracture prevention, and promised bipartisan support. The Ministers urged the group to move swiftly in compiling this submission. As I am sure you would all agree, this is about getting the right outcome for patients and there is now a window of opportunity open to us; a fantastic platform from which to push for improvement in secondary fracture prevention in Australia.