RTDS site specific dashboard

The aim of the radiotherapy site specific improvement metrics is to support radiotherapy providers, Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to identify possible variation, improve treatment standardisation, deliver evidence-based best practice and rollout new evidence-based treatments. Additionally, these metrics aim to support the implementation of Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) consensus statements and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance in England for radiotherapy planning and treatment.

The development of the metrics was undertaken by 7 site specific working groups with representation from clinicians and NDRS Radiotherapy Dataset (RTDS) team members. The process involved reviewing NICE guidelines and RCR consensus statements by tumour type and identifying rationale and evidence for each potential metric before proposing a numerator and denominator. Next, data sources were identified (predominantly the RTDS) and initial results were presented back to the clinical working group for review to ensure accuracy and quality, and to confirm the metrics were fit for purpose. The final agreement of the metrics was therefore decided based on utility for clinical teams by the working groups.

The metrics cover 7 tumour sites: breast, prostate, rectal, head and neck, oesophago-gastric, lung and anal cancers. This report currently includes radiotherapy improvement metrics for the period 01 January 2020 to 30 June 2024, with the intention of an annual refresh. Data for the metrics are presented at a provider and national level with variation over time shown.

This dashboard was published in April 2025. Currently, metrics which use RTDS V6 are not included in the report. Once a sufficient number of providers are submitting V6 for a six-month period we will add in these metrics.

Acknowledgement

This work uses data that has been provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. The data is collated, maintained and quality assured by the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), which is part of NHS England (NHSE).

RTDS standard collects consistent and comparable data across all NHS Acute Trust providers of radiotherapy services in England, and additional NHS centres delivering radiotherapy services in Scotland and Wales.

This data can be used to provide intelligence for services planning, commissioning, clinical practice and research and operational provision of radiotherapy services across the UK. All NHS radiotherapy activity data is collected including external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy.

Find out more about the RTDS dataset.

This dashboard provides access to operational and clinical data produced by NDRS. The data is derived from sensitive patient level information and is shared to support data quality improvement, service planning, and performance monitoring within health and care organisations.

While the data is de-personalised, small numbers or rare conditions may increase the risk of re-identification. Users must therefore take care when interpreting and sharing outputs.

By accessing this dashboard, users are expected to act in accordance with NHS information governance principles, the Caldicott Principles, and applicable data protection legislation, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR.

Users must ensure that:

• data is used only for legitimate health and care purposes
• data is not used to identify individuals, either directly or indirectly
• data is not shared, reproduced, or used outside authorised environments or without a clear business need
• any onward sharing is carefully considered, balancing the risk of disclosure against the intended benefit, and only shared with appropriate organisations or individuals
• outputs are interpreted appropriately, taking account of limitations in completeness, timeliness, and accuracy
• published or shared data relates only to their own organisation or is benchmarked against England-level data
• any published outputs meet anonymisation standards
• advice is sought from local Information Governance teams or a Caldicott Guardian where there is any uncertainty or risk

Permission must be sought in advance of any publication that includes Welsh and/or Scottish data from:

• email Public Health Wales
• email Public Health Scotland

When publishing data please ensure to follow the guidance for staff and stakeholders about how and when to acknowledge the use of NDRS data.

If you have any concerns about data use, interpretation, or disclosure risk, please email the NDRS team at nhsdigital.ndrsdatahub@nhs.net. 

We intend these reports to be as useful as possible to the community, and aim to continue to adapt and improve them to meet user needs.

As such, it would be very helpful for us if you were able to send any feedback, positive or negative, to the RTDS Helpdesk at RTDS.helpdesk@nhs.net 

Please do not include sensitive or patient identifiable information.