Radiotherapy Capacity & Demand Review

Under the current financial regime, NHS Trusts are responsible for replacing equipment and for liner accelerators (LINACs) this should be undertaken where the equipment is 10 years old.

Notwithstanding the responsibilities of NHS Trusts, since 2016 NHS England and NHS Improvement has taken steps to ensure that every NHS Trust delivering radiotherapy has access to modern, cutting edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like SABR - in line with both the Report of the Independent Cancer Taskforce and the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP). Since 2016, this has resulted in investment of c£162m of central capital to support the replacement or upgrade of over 100 radiotherapy treatment machines.

The capacity and demand project will form the basis of a reassessment of radiotherapy demand and capacity and link to other work to help understand the impact of changing clinical practice and inequalities in accessing radiotherapy (age, ethnicity and deprivation), to support local health systems to evaluate future capacity requirements across the ODN.

This project will consist of two phases. It is expected that the Supplier will produce two reports in line with the requirements as outlined in Deliverables section. The successful Supplier will be expected to work closely with NHSD / NHSE/I partnership so that the impact of unwarranted variation in access to radiotherapy treatment can be incorporated into a second phase report by December 2022 at the latest Interested suppliers should register on the NHS England & Improvement e-procurement system here: https://health-family.force.com/login