NHS Bedfordshire CCG (BCCG) wish to secure Providers for the provision of Diagnostics (Non-obstetric Ultrasound Service) NOUS.

Referrals into these services may come from secondary care, accident and emergency, walk in centres or GP practices. Services must be provided by trained practitioners with appropriate equipment. Bedfordshire CCG are looking to contract on a Any Qualified Provider type basis (AQP) for this service.

The aim of the service is to aid early diagnostics and avoid the need for unnecessary referral to secondary care or to support the shift of activity in to a primary care setting, where this will improve access. Where there are clear secondary care clinical pathways with ultrasound as a core component, it is more appropriate for this diagnostic to be undertaken as an integral part of the clinical pathway.

The care pathway being commissioned is pre-appointment communication with patients, the diagnostic investigation and a report. The report will be sent to the referrer. This must cover not only the description of the investigation and the findings but also, where appropriate, include any recommendations for further imaging or investigation. It must also include advice on patient management. Structured reporting will be in place to support local referrers in their options for further clinical management. The service will need to be fully quality assured and validated. The provider(s) must send a minimum data set (example in Appendix 1) without Patient Identifiable Data (PID) to enable processing of invoices.