NHS Camden CCG on behalf of itself as host/coordinating commissioner and its Associates: NHS Barnet CCG, NHS Enfield CCG, NHS Haringey CCG, NHS Islington CCG and University College London Hospitals NHS FT wish to commission a Direct Access Diagnostics Imaging Service in North Central London.

It is expected this service will deliver the following outcomes:

— improve the quality of life for low risk patients by providing rapid access to diagnostics in a setting closer to home,

— increase patient choice by offering community based services at times and venues that suit patient needs,

— facilitate referrers to be able to manage patients safely and effectively within the primary care,

— reduce:

—— unplanned hospital admissions,

—— waiting times for services within secondary care,

—— hospital outpatient appointments and follow-ups,

— develop and deliver innovative services, which are also cost effective,

— develop Integrated care pathways across the health and social care system to achieve holistic care,

— improve the quality of GP referral and management of conditions within primary care.

It is expected this service will provide a range of diagnostic imagining modalities including:

— MRI,

— ultrasound,

— x-ray,

— DEXA scan,

— blood pressure monitoring,

— ambulatory ECG,

— ECG (24 hours, 48 hours, 7 day event recorder),

— echocardiogram.

Commissioners intend to award one contract, with 1 service specification, 1 set of key performance indicators and 1 information management reporting dataset applicable to all associates.

Key requirements include but are not limited to:

Referral methodology:

— e-RS (or other web based system) and secure email.

Referral response rates:

— non-urgent referrals access to diagnostics within no more than 15 days locally*,

— urgent referrals access to diagnostics within no more than 5 days locally*,

— patients with a suspected cancer diagnosis should be requested as urgent (5 days).

Diagnostic report + Images:

— within 3 days of examination,

— referee alerted within 2 hours where unexpected or untoward findings,

— in the case of malignancy, suspected cancer or other clinically serious findings, a copy of the report to the referring clinician within (1) business day following discovery of the condition,

— provided by GMC registered radiologists who are UK based.

Diagnostic report + Images:

— within 3 days of examination in prescribed reporting format,

— referee to have access to reporting individual for follow up questions.

Interoperability:

— GP IT, Acute and Community systems,

— Health Information Exchange (Cerner),

— receive requests, transfer and send results/data over a NHS N3 compliant secure connection or equivalent, whilst keeping up to date with local systems and process developments.

Good clinical/industrial practice:

— CQC registered,

— quality standards as defined by CQC, Royal College of Radiologists.

Staff:

— have requisite training, qualifications and professional registrations as specified by the competent authority for that diagnostic investigation or recognised voluntary registration scheme,

— are able to diagnose clinically significant or serious pathology,

— have performed the minimum specified required number of diagnostic investigations.

Location:

— provision for MRI, Ultrasound, Cardiac, DEXA and X-ray services available in each of the 5 boroughs or within 1 mile of the neighbouring NCL borough(s) boundary,

— access to good transport links essential and must be taken into consideration when a provider establishes a service location,

— NCL CCGs would not expect patients to have more than a 5-10 minute walk from the nearest transport link and would expect access to local disabled parking,

— explore options to develop an extended range of community based diagnostics informed by the strategic direction set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, to inform the development of services in the community and primary care across at multiple borough locations across the 5 NCL boroughs and innovative Ways of working: commissions are expecting to agree a Local Variation to National tariff prices.

Further details of these requirements which can be found within the published tender documentation and service specification.