Digital Histopathology Outsourced Reporting
Overview
Summary, notice description and lot information
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has issued an award intending to contract with Diagnexia UK Ltd for the provision of digital histopathology outsourced reporting. This award notice, dated 24th March 2025, falls under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, and therefore does not adhere to the Public Contract Regulations 2015. The procurement, classified under pathology services (CPV code 85111800), is aimed at addressing a national shortage of consultant histopathologists and is essential for maintaining diagnostic service levels.
The trust anticipates outsourcing approximately 20,000 cases for digital reporting from November 2024, with a contract initially lasting three years and an option to extend by up to 24 months. The project is based in Norwich, falling under the UKH15 region. This procurement presents a valuable opportunity for businesses specialising in digital pathology services, particularly those equipped with advanced digital technologies and compliant with healthcare information governance standards.
Suppliers capable of integrating their services with existing systems like the Sectra Histology PACS IDS7 and LIMS (Intersystems TCL) will find themselves well-suited to compete. The specified requirements underscore the need for a seamless digital reporting process, catering to a sizeable portion of the workload, including MDT support and holiday cover. This tender is particularly attractive to SME businesses that can deliver high-quality digital diagnostic services, continuously engage in improvement practices, and provide robust disaster recovery plans, all whilst meeting cost efficiency expectations.
There is a nationally identified shortage of consultant histopathologists, many NHS trusts have difficulty recruiting staff and the existing workforce is ageing. Currently at the Trust there is approximately 30 vacant consultant PAs, with 43% of our consultants over 55. This level of staffing puts a strain on all diagnostic specialities with the department struggling to meet agreed 2ww reporting targets.
In addition, the Authority will expand its case load by approximately 20% in 2024.
Given the situation described above, the Trust intends to outsource approximately 20k cases for digital reporting from November 2024 utilising the digital technology currently in deployment in the Lab, namely the existing LIMS (TCL), a range of whole slide digitisers and a shared instance of a cloud hosted Sectra PACS IDS7 system.
The supplier will provide Services as follows:
a) The provision of circa 30k digital histopathology diagnostic case reports per annum
b) The provision of digitally enabled MDT support for approximately 20 % of these cases, plus holiday cover. The provision of a fully digital service that requires minimal manual intervention over and above the processes routinely used by the Dept to direct and allocate cases, produce digital images, and produce digital clinical information.
The service must be fully integrated, IG compliant digital outsourced reporting service, making use of, through HL7 integration, the Trusts Sectra Histology PACS IDS7 and LIMS (Intersystems TCL), tracking solution and slide scanners, sufficiently to enable seamless viewing of images and clinical information, and reporting and return of reports to the PACS.
The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the "Authority") is issuing an invitation to tender ("ITT") in connection with the competitive procurement of Digital Histopathology Outsourced Reporting.<br/><br/>The Authority intends to enter into a contract with the successful Bidder on the NHS Terms and Conditions for the Provision of Services (Contract Version). The initial contract term will be for a period of 3 years with the option to extend by up-to 24 months.<br/><br/>This procurement is under the Provider Selection Regime 2024 Competitive Process and is a replacement to an existing service to a new provider.
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