NHS Cancer Waiting Times System

Following new constitutional commitments and the necessity to deliver against recommendations made by the Independent Cancer Taskforce and commitments made by the Secretary of State for Health; and recognising that the existing Cancer Waiting Times (CWT) system requires a technology refresh, NHS England is carrying out some early market engagement to explore possible options for providing the CWT reporting service.

NHS England are currently baselining the existing system, gathering requirements for the new service and developing a full business case for procurement of such.

The CWT system allows the collection of data from all trusts diagnosing or treating cancer patients across the English NHS, and the reporting of those data against the national cancer waiting times standards. In addition to this current functionality, the new system requires additional features. For example, it will need to be able to accommodate the new 28 day referral to diagnosis standard, including not just the additional data items, but the ability to collect data from potentially many additional sources, and the ability to track patients effectively across multiple organisations. Interoperability is crucial – the system will need to be compatible with multiple other systems, flexible enough to accommodate future changes, and easily linked to additional datasets to enable further insight.

We are keen to run an open discussion workshop with potential suppliers to share our initial thoughts, conduct an open Question and Answer session and gather feedback in writing after the event on

• the viability of the approach;
• alternative approaches that could be considered;
• realistic timescales to deliver;
• Rough Order of Magnitude costings.

The workshop will be held on Wednesday 8th June, 10:00 – 12:15, Coffee from 9:30, at 229 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5PN – tel 020 7631 8397 and website: http://www.pccc.co.uk/ .

To register your interest please e-mail the NHS England Commercial Team at nhsengland.commercial@nhs.net.

Please title the e-mail sent ‘NHS Cancer Waiting Times System Expression of Interest’.