Blueteq HCD is a web-based software system that is designed to enhance financial governance of high-cost medicines and assure compliance with national clinical guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG).
Blueteq HCD is already widely used throughout NHS England. The system gives NHS Wales a standardised process to reduce variation in access to medicines across health boards, with opportunities to record multiple datasets such as baseline demographics, clinical outcomes and patient characteristics.
Blueteq was introduced across NHS Wales for NHS Wales Joint Commissioning committee (NWJCC) which was previously known as the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC) commissioned medicines in April 2021. NWJCC manages the roll-out of all HCD drugs that it commissions. The roll out for the remaining HCDs in secondary and primary care started in April 2023 in accordance with WHC 2022 032 (March 2023) and is led by All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre (AWTTC) who supports AWMSG and its subgroups.
Blueteq HCD provides fast approval for patient access to treatment, and detailed specific data benefits and planning. The clinical data available in Blueteq HCD helps to inform on service requirements in forecasting, planning and implementation activity for new medicines approved by NICE and AWMSG or recommended by the One Wales Medicines process.
The forms used in NHS Wales follow NICE and AWMSG criteria, with possible additions for reporting when applicable.
WHSSC will publish a list of medicine approval forms available on the NHS Wales Blueteq HCD system. NWJCC SSC will update this list regularly. The list will be available on the NWJCC Blueteq website
Before an approval form is available, patients will be able to receive a medicine or treatment if it is appropriate for their condition. This would go through the Prior Approval of Funding (external site) process. Once the approval forms are available, it is expected that a form will be completed when starting treatment.
The average time to fill in a treatment initiation form is approximately 5 to 10 minutes. The time taken will depend on someone’s experience of using Blueteq HCD and the type of treatment involved. The amount of detail needed to fill in the form can vary significantly.
Wherever possible, forms are designed to allow automatic approval or rejection, so that an immediate response will be received after submitting the form.
Blueteq HCD retains a history of all requests, including all associated correspondence.
The health board, and multi-disciplinary team, will guide clinicians on which pathway to follow for their application for treatment to be considered; for example, an Individual Patient Funding Request (IPFR).
No, you only need to fill in an approval form for your patient at the start of treatment, and sometimes for continuation of treatment, where national guidance demands a review.
A treatment initiation form is filled in before starting treatment, to gain approval. A treatment continuation form will only be needed for certain medicines where guidance recommends a review at a specific point(s) to meet criteria to continue on treatment.
NWJCC and Health boards in Wales are able to use Blueteq HCD data to support clinical and financial governance of prescribing of high-cost medicines. The data will provide assurance that a high-cost medicine is available to patients who meet the national criteria for treatment.
All NHS Wales users of Blueteq HCD will have access to their own relevant data within the system, which offers good support for clinical audits and planning.
Yes, NHSE and NWJCC are two separate systems therefore for a user to access both systems they would require an account for each system and therefore two logins.
Blueteq HCD forms are created for NHS Wales from scratch or adapted from a current NHS England template if available and appropriate.
Treatment criteria detailed in national guidance, such as NICE and AWMSG guidance, are used to develop the forms. Additional criteria may be added if appropriate.
The relevant clinical specialities within NHS Wales are consulted on the forms created, before they are finalised and uploaded to the system
Yes, Blueteq HCD provides a comprehensive user guide for all aspects of the HCD system. The guide is available on the AWTTC website (External site).
Blueteq HCD user training is also available from Blueteq. Contact the Blueteq support team on trust@blueteq.co.uk.
Please contact Blueteq for setting up a new user or for training on how to use the system (free of charge) at either trust@blueteq.co.uk or whssc@blueteq.co.uk
Contact the Blueteq support team on trust@blueteq.co.uk if you have any technical problems with Blueteq.