OSTEOPOROSIS patients may have to suffer a broken bone before they qualify for drugs to fight the disease, if "ludicrous" proposals to limit treatment are introduced, claim campaigners.

Gwent sufferers of the bone-weakening condition are being urged to back a nationwide protest at the plans, which the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS) fears will set back the fight against the disease by several years.

"It is very important we make ourselves heard. These proposals ignore prevention of osteoporosis and are all about penny-pinching," said Jasmin Garland, an osteoporosis patient from Blackwood.

A member of the Gwent Osteoporosis Group, a branch of the NOS, Mrs Garland said people should voice their anger to the NOS, their MP, and the treatments standards body NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Exc ellence, which is proposing the restrictions.

"We hear a lot of talk about disease prevention from the powers-that-be, but the proposals will withdraw a range of drugs that help to arrest the progress of osteoporosis," said Mrs Garland.

"The cost to the NHS of treating fractures and other consequences of osteoporosis is enormous, yet they do not want to invest in the prevention that would ultimately save money.

"Compared to the cost of treating a hip fracture, the cost of these tablets, less than a pound a day, is peanuts."

NICE is consulting nationally as part of its appraisal of a range of drugs for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, and prevention of osteoporotic fractures in post-menopausal women.

Its preliminary recommendations involve limiting the use of drugs known as bisphosphonates to women over 65. But post-menopausal women whatever their age, would be barred from having these drugs unless they have had what the consultation document calls a fragility fracture - a broken bone for which osteoporosis was a contributory factor.

The recommendations are based on detailed studies of the drugs' clinical and cost effectiveness.

The NOS has dubbed the plans "ludicrous" and called the proposed removal of another drug, raloxifene, "hugely detrimental to helping prevent broken bones in the spine".

There are about 180,000 osteoporosis-related fractures every year in England and Wales. In 2000, the cost of treating these was put at £1.5-£1.8 billion, a figure expected to rise to £2.1 billion by 2010.

By contrast, the current cost of prescribed bisphosphonates in England and Wales is £69 million.

The disease affects one in three women and one in 12 men during their lifetime.