The SEL Pathology Programme had the task to produce a service specification for the largest outsourced pathology service in the UK. It was of paramount importance to the Trusts and CCGs that the new service contract was future proofed and reflected the needs of patients and users of the service. This would require extensive clinical engagement to determine how services are currently delivered but more importantly how clinical services were likely to change in the future and so how requirements from pathology would change. In addition to changes in clinical practice, changes in policy (NHSI Network Recommendations) were an important consideration as the new service had to ensure compliance with guidance and policy.
Approach
It is essential before any procurements are started to spend enough time in planning what the future requirements are likely to be and have a very clear idea on what the target operating model is likely to look at from a configuration and outputs perspective. Our approach is to ensure that our clients spend the right amount of time before any formal process is started developing the required level of detail in the specification. In the SEL Pathology Programme we did this through an extensive clinical user engagement programme that focused on understanding the clinical needs of the clinical services and working with the clinical leads to develop a forecast of requirements from pathology. This was then combined with the inputs from pathology specialists to ensure that the needs from pathology by clinical users were correctly translated into a pathology service output specification.
