CLINICAL CODER

Location

Description

The Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CAVUHB) requires the provision of Accredited Clinical Coders (ACC) to support the Clinical Coding Department in meeting Welsh Government coding completeness targets. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, CAVUHB has faced significant challenges in recruiting and retaining permanent coding staff due to increased remote-working opportunities across the UK and higher pay offered by English trusts. As a result, the Health Board has become increasingly reliant on agency clinical coders to offset an internal staffing shortfall of approximately 8 WTE. The national market for on-site clinical coders has become highly competitive, with reduced availability among agencies and no single agency able to supply sufficient numbers to meet departmental demand. Consequently, CAVUHB has relied on multiple single-supplier call-offs to ensure continuity of service. This procurement will secure agency ACC cover from April 2026 to March 2027 to maintain operational throughput while permanent recruitment continues. The contract will provide ACCs capable of delivering high-volume, high-accuracy clinical coding across a range of specialities, based on site at UHW and UHL. Coders will work under the direction of the Clinical Coding Manager, following weekly prioritisation instructions and adhering to national and local clinical coding standards. Coders will be required to deliver a minimum agreed output and achieve 95% accuracy, with performance monitored weekly. Failure to meet output or accuracy targets will result in removal of individual coders from the contract. This procurement ensures business continuity, supports statutory reporting requirements, and enables the Health Board to improve coding completeness during a period of staffing shortage. The scope is limited to the Health Records/Clinical Coding Department and will not include additional services outside this remit. The requirement reflects a continuation of existing operational need, with no major changes to service delivery anticipated beyond securing a stable, compliant, and consistent coding resource.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• None found

Legal Justification

The requirement for Accredited Clinical Coders cannot be met through open competition because the national market is extremely constrained, with only a very small number of specialist agencies capable of supplying ACC‑qualified coders. These agencies are the only providers with access to a sufficiently trained and accredited workforce, and no reasonable alternative exists that can meet the required technical standards, accuracy levels, and onsite operational requirements within the timescales needed to maintain statutory coding completeness targets. As such, effective competition is not available, and the service can only be provided by suppliers with specialised capability and accreditation, meeting the “technical reasons” justification for a direct award.The required services rely on access to proprietary tools, systems, and protected methodologies that are owned and controlled exclusively by the provider. Only the rights‑holder can lawfully supply these elements, and no alternative supplier is permitted to use or replicate the protected components essential for delivering the service to the required standard. As these exclusive rights prevent any other supplier from delivering a compliant or safe service, there is no reasonable substitute or alternative provider available in the market. This aligns with the permitted legal justification for direct award where the protection of exclusive rights makes competition impossible, and therefore supports the use of a Transparency Notice to formally notify the market of the intention to award directly.

Other Information

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