National Radiotherapy Dataset (RTDS)

What is RTDS?

The RTDS standard (DAPB0111) is an update to an existing standard that has required all NHS Acute Trust providers of radiotherapy services in England or private facilities where delivery is funded by the NHS, to collect and submit standardised data monthly against a nationally defined data set since 2009. The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) are responsible for the ongoing maintenance, development and implementation.

There are currently 51 NHS Acute Trusts delivering external beam radiotherapy in England, many of which are also delivering at least one form of non-external beam radiotherapy. In addition, there are approximately 40 NHS funded sites who do not deliver external beam radiotherapy but are known to be delivering molecular radiotherapy treatments.

The purpose of the standard is to collect consistent and comparable data across all English providers of radiotherapy or private facilities where delivery is funded by the NHS, to produce a timely and definitive analytical resource of radiotherapy services across England.

RTDS Implementation Plan Infographic

Implementation timeline for 2022 update

Implementation will be between 20 July 2021 and 31 March 2022. During this time please refer to the RTDS v6.0 Data set, Implementation Guide and User Guide, to help with development of the standard.

At a later stage, you will need the Technical Guide to write and then test your reporting files.

Data collection using RTDS v6.0 will start from 1 April 2022. There will be with a three month roll-out period between 1 April 2022 and 30 June 2022 to help and support suppliers and developers.

Full conformance is required from 1 July 2022.

What's new?

This new version structures the data requested into the pathways expected of a radiotherapy patient, including an episode, prescription, plan, exposure, and attendance sections.

This has in turn allowed the data set to be futureproofed, with the addition of SNOMED CT, unique radiotherapy coding (not currently found within SNOMED CT or OPCS), the accurate recording of radiotherapy beam type and the actual measurement type to support the actual absorbed radiation dose.

Careful consideration was also made to improve the recording of Proton Therapy (within RTDS), which is now being delivered in Manchester and will become clinical in London at the University College London Hospital (UCLH) in the summer of 2021. The ability to report clinical trials, treatment intent (in more granular detail), route of admission and specialist radiotherapy treatments were forefront in the many decisions made throughout the initial draft development process.

Important new documentation

There are lots of new documentation that will be required to understand the changes to RTDS v6.0 as follows:

In addition, there is further supporting documentation available at the following websites:

www.digital.nhs.uk/isce/publication/dapb0111:

  • specification
  • change request
  • implementation guide
  • information standard notice

https://nww.api.encore.nhs.uk/:

  • RTDS v6.0 Portal User Guide

Submission schedule

Data files are required to be submitted monthly, 20 working days after the end of the month for England, to be uploaded to RTDS as follows:

2021-22: 

Month of treatment                            

Submission due date
April 2021 1st June 2021
May 2021 28th June 2021
June 2021 28th July 2021
July 2021 27th August 2021
August 2021 28th September 2021
September 2021 28th October 2021
October 2021 26th November 2021
November 2021 30th December 2021
December 2021 31st January 2022
January 2022 28th February 2022
February 2022 28th March 2022
March 2022 3rd May 2022

 2022-23:

Month of treatment                            

Submission due date
April 2022 31st May 2022
May 2022 28th June 2022
June 2022 28th July 2022
July 2022 26th August 2022
August 2022 28th September 2022
September 2022 28th October 2022
October 2022 28th November 2022
November 2022 30th December 2022
December 2022 30th January 2023
January 2023 28th February 2023
February 2023 28th March 2023
March 2023 3rd May 2023
  • files containing data must be uploaded to the portal and all errors on the file must be resolved

Note:  This upload schedule will continue to apply to all future months

Help and feedback

The following are a list of key contacts responsible for the development and management of the data set:

Position                     

Name
Senior responsible officer Sarah Stevens (PHE)
Sponsor Dr Brian Rous (PHE)
Lead developer Andrew Murphy (PHE)
Project lead Catherine Roe (PHE)
Implementation/maintenance manager  Michael Sharpe (PHE)

RTDS has two main points of contact. If you need any help or support with uploading data or queries regarding implementation, these should initially be raised with the RTDS helpdesk as follows: