BCU-FCOWC-62422- Provision of PET-CT Services

This contract is to ensure the maintained availability of a North Wales based PET CT imaging service for the populations of North Wales and North Powys.

PET CT is a form of specialised medical imaging involving the administration of radiopharmaceuticals and, in Wales, is a service commissioned by the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (JCC). The availability of PET imaging is crucial in the management of a variety of diseases but particularly cancer. PET CT scans can provide greater staging certainty, increasing the likelihood of the correct therapeutic treatment option being chosen and reducing the use of sometimes unnecessary surgical approaches with high morbidity risks. PET CT has been shown to change proposed treatment in around 40% of cases. Staging certainty improves accuracy of cancer datasets which in turn allow outcomes to be more accurately attributed and understood. There is increasing use of PET CT in non-oncology indications with the recent adoption of inflammatory and infective indications. It is increasingly used in diagnosing neurological conditions and cardiac disease.

PET CT access is governed in Wales by JCC Policy CP50. PET CT referrals need to fall within a restricted range of funded indications determined by JCC with any other cases only accepted if IPFR (Individual Patient Funding Requests) funding is made available. The clinical indications for PET-CT in Wales are currently less than for England but, as more capacity for PET CT becomes available, these will increase.

This remarketing of the currently contracted service is set against a background of the successful support by Welsh Government approval of the OBC for consolidated PET-CT and Nuclear Medicine service within North Wales, due to open in 2027. This procurement will allow for the continuation of PET-CT service provision to the people of North Wales whilst this consolidated centre is built and established, at which point BCUHB will begin providing this commissioned service.

This procurement follows a previous unsuccessful exercise that was terminated after a challenge identified issues within both the technical and commercial sections (BCU-FCOWC-59483). The Health Board subsequently issued a direct award (BCU-FCONC-61752) to the incumbent supplier, Alliance Medical Limited, for a 20-week period, allowing time for Procurement and the Health Board to revise the criteria and initiate a new tender process.