Planning systems

Description

NHS National Services Scotland were tendering on behalf of Tayside Health Board (the ‘Health Board’) for a replacement treatment planning system (the ‘Contract’) for the Radiotherapy Department at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, from a single contractor. The Health Board would enter into a Contract with the successful contractor. Scotland has a population of 5 300 000 who are served by 5 Cancer Centres, which amongst them use 27 linear accelerators to deliver in excess of 200 000 fractions of treatment per annum. Each Cancer Centre has at least 1 treatment planning system (TPS) that is used to model patient treatments. In order to provide efficient and effective delivery of radiotherapy services throughout Scotland, NHS Tayside’s (NHST) TPS was due to be replaced under the Scottish Government’s Radiotherapy Capital Equipment Replacement Programme (CERP). The TPS must remain up to date to enable modelling of the increasingly complex and rapidly developing radiotherapy techniques required to deliver optimal treatment for patients. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), are considered the standard of care for the majority of treatment sites, with an increasing body of evidence supporting the benefit for patients. It was thus a requirement that equipment supplied is compatible with NHS Scotland’s intention to make available intensity modulated radiotherapy to all patients who might benefit. image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) is a technological development that enables the accuracy of patient positioning on the treatment couch to be confirmed, thereby increasing the probability of tumour control and reducing dosage to surrounding normal tissues. It was a requirement that all equipment tendered be compatible with NHS Scotland’s intention to make image guidance, including tracking tumour motion, available to all patients who might benefit.