NHS North West London Pathology

About the client

NHS North West London Pathology (NWLP) is one of the largest NHS-led pathology services in the country, serving hospitals, GPs, and healthcare providers across North West London.

Responsible for delivering high-quality diagnostic laboratory services to a complex multi-site health system, NWLP required a digital partner with demonstrable experience of NHS procurement, information governance, cyber security requirements, and the accessibility standards expected of public sector digital services.

Vu Digital was appointed following a tender waiver to support NWLP’s digital programme, providing end-to-end delivery across user research, design, development, content strategy, technical audit, and ongoing programme management.

The challenge

NWLP’s digital programme required structured, phased delivery within NHS financial constraints.

Each phase was independently scoped, funded on a 50/50 milestone basis, and subject to formal sign-off before the next could proceed.

Three interdependent workstreams had to be coordinated simultaneously:

• A controlled online ordering system for authorised NHS users, enabling clinical staff to locate the correct pathology test and place product orders without manual intervention or reliance on offline processes.
• A full rebuild of the main public-facing website, improving content structure, user journeys, and WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance for a diverse audience spanning GPs, healthcare professionals, training seekers, and the wider public.
• Scoping and groundwork for future digital capability, including an e-learning platform and AI-assisted user support, planned and budgeted within the programme to protect continuity and avoid future re-procurement.

All workstreams were subject to NHS IT governance requirements, including mandatory penetration testing by Imperial College NHS Trust’s own IT team before any system could be moved to a live environment.

Our approach

Vu structured the engagement as a formal digital programme, with staged delivery, evidence-based decision-making at each phase, and governance checkpoints built in from the outset.

Each phase produced outputs that directly informed the next, ensuring no work was duplicated and no scope was committed to without a clear evidential basis.

Phase 1: Stakeholder engagement and requirements definition

No design or development work began until Vu had established a clear, evidenced understanding of user needs, organisational priorities, and technical constraints.

An internal programme planning session in November 2024 confirmed stakeholder roles and responsibilities across both organisations, covering day-to-day project management, website content, clinical learning content, ordering platform oversight, and chatbot strategy.

Two structured workshops followed in the final week of November, bringing together eight NWLP stakeholders from clinical, communications, and IT functions.

The first workshop focused on information architecture validation, audience segmentation, design direction, and digital self-service requirements, including an evaluation of chatbot options for triaging user queries.

The second examined e-learning needs and user journeys in depth, mapping payment models, course structure, CPD certification requirements, and the end-to-end pathway from clinical information to test ordering.

These outputs provided the evidential foundation for all subsequent delivery decisions, reducing the risk of scope creep and rework during the build phase.

They comprised a validated information architecture, agreed user personas, and a clear requirements brief.

Phase 2: Design, build, and online ordering platform

From December 2024 through to February 2025, Vu moved through prototyping and design iteration, with formal sign-off checkpoints at each stage before development resource was committed. Weekly programme standups provided a structured forum for progress reporting, risk escalation, and decision-making throughout.

Development commenced in March 2025, with builds progressively deployed to a staging environment for client acceptance testing. A LearnDash e-learning scoping session, a tawk.to chatbot requirements workshop with NWLP’s IT function, and coordination with Imperial IT on penetration testing requirements all ran concurrently, managed within the same programme rhythm without disrupting the primary build workstream.

A significant and often underestimated element of the build was the content management architecture. Rather than delivering a fixed website requiring developer involvement for future updates, Vu built a flexible, block-based editing environment that NWLP staff could operate independently, reducing ongoing maintenance costs and giving the organisation direct control over its digital content.

Over 335 individual issues were tracked, managed, and resolved through BugHerd prior to launch, spanning visual design, content population, data integrity, and functional testing.

The online ordering platform, a controlled WooCommerce environment on a dedicated subdomain accessible only to authorised NHS users, was built in parallel with the main site and launched concurrently. This reduced the governance overhead of two separate security clearance processes.

By July 2025, the programme entered its most intensive phase. Over 200 issues were raised and resolved in June and July alone, before a planned handover to Imperial IT for independent security testing on 31 July. Penetration testing was completed and passed in September, confirming the system met NHS cyber security requirements for live deployment.

The pathology test database: reducing clinical administrative burden

A central requirement of the rebuilt site was a searchable pathology test database, enabling GPs, biomedical scientists, and clinical teams to quickly locate the correct test, understand sample requirements, and where applicable proceed directly to placing an order.

The database is a core operational tool for the clinical users who rely on it daily.

The underlying dataset was clinically complex, with each test record carrying up to 23 structured fields: clinical background, clinical indications, reference ranges varying by patient age and condition, sample container type and volume, collection method, transport and storage requirements, turnaround time, accreditation status, clinical notes, related test links, and supporting documentation.

Critically, each record also carried a direct link to the corresponding orderable product, so a clinician searching for a test could move from clinical information to placing an order within a single, joined-up workflow rather than navigating separate systems.

Migrating this dataset from NWLP’s live systems without disrupting ongoing clinical operations required careful planning.

The canonical data source remained live throughout development, with a coordinated freeze and final import scheduled close to launch. Data integrity was validated field by field: reference range tables were verified for accurate rendering across different patient cohorts, null fields were confirmed to suppress cleanly without displaying empty labels, and A-Z search and per-service filtering were tested against the full dataset before go-live.

The result is a clinical resource that consolidates what had previously required navigating multiple documents and systems, reducing the risk of incorrect test selection and the administrative burden on both clinical staff and the pathology service.

Phase 3: Technical and accessibility audit

Running concurrently with early design work in February 2025, Vu conducted a structured technical audit of the existing nwlpathology.nhs.uk site.

This provided the evidential basis for rebuild scope decisions and ensured no legacy issues were carried forward unexamined.

The audit crawled 1,580 URLs, identifying 867 HTML pages and 35 PDFs. Findings were shared with the NWLP team to inform their own content review, and a joint session was held to walk through the crawl map and HTML export, helping NWLP make informed decisions about what to migrate, rewrite, or retire.

Key issues identified included over 188 images missing alt text in breach of WCAG 2.1 AA requirements, missing security response headers, redirect chains, and a number of 4xx and 5xx errors.

These were documented as a prioritised remediation list, with accessibility findings directly informing the new build’s quality assurance process.

Programme governance and risk management

Public sector digital programmes carry specific risks that differ from commercial projects, not least the consequences of failed launches, data loss, or security incidents within a clinical environment.

Vu’s approach to programme governance was designed to surface and mitigate these risks proactively, with a formal audit trail maintained throughout.

A programme risk log was maintained from May 2025 onward, with risks formally rated, owned, and reviewed at each standup. Content readiness is a dependency that frequently causes NHS web projects to stall. It was logged and managed formally from an early stage, with the development programme structured to maintain forward momentum where client-side content was still being prepared.

Launch readiness was treated as a discrete workstream: DNS change management, order history migration, rollback procedures, and security testing windows were all planned and confirmed in advance, with a named IT contact established for direct technical coordination.

Penetration testing, a mandatory requirement before any new system could go live within Imperial College NHS Trust infrastructure, was scheduled as a formal programme dependency and carried out by Imperial IT.

Vu provided the IT team with a full technology stack disclosure to enable an informed assessment of testing scope, ensuring the process was efficient and the results actionable. The test passed in September 2025.

Budget transparency was maintained throughout, with hours tracked and reported at each standup. Reserved allocations for future phases, including the e-learning platform and user support chatbot, were held within the programme budget. This gave NWLP visibility of forward costs and avoided the need for re-procurement to continue the programme.

• Weekly programme standups with structured agendas: progress, risks, blockers, and decisions recorded throughout.
• Formal change control at every stage, protecting public funds and preventing unmanaged scope growth.
• Issue tracking via BugHerd, providing NWLP with direct, real-time visibility of the delivery backlog and resolution status.
• Milestone-based payment schedule, with expenditure tied to verified delivery rather than time elapsed.
• Future phases scoped and budgeted within the programme, providing continuity of delivery without repeat procurement overhead.

The Outcome

The rebuilt NWLP website and online ordering platform went live in September 2025, eleven months from initial engagement to live deployment.

The ordering platform launched on the Monday; the main site followed on the Thursday. A 30-day post-launch warranty period provided assurance cover through to mid-October, with Vu available to address any issues arising from the transition.

The programme delivered a clinically relevant, accessible, and security-assured digital service. The content management architecture was designed for long-term independence, reducing NWLP’s reliance on third-party resource for routine updates.

The pathology test database provides clinical staff with a single, reliable point of reference for test selection and ordering, consolidating information that had previously been spread across multiple documents and systems.

Following launch, Vu assumed responsibility for hosting and ongoing maintenance under a formal service level agreement, providing NWLP with a single accountable supplier for both the platform and its continued operation.

A post-launch review in October 2025 confirmed the next phases of the programme: e-learning platform deployment via LearnDash, chatbot configuration and training, and ongoing hosting and maintenance. All within an established, funded partnership and without the time and cost of a fresh procurement exercise.

Working with Vu Digital

Vu Digital is an experienced digital delivery partner for NHS and public sector organisations, with a track record of delivering complex, multi-stakeholder programmes within NHS procurement frameworks, information governance requirements, and cyber security standards.

We are available via G-Cloud and the Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS) frameworks on the Crown Commercial Service Digital Marketplace, providing a compliant route to engagement without the overhead of a standalone procurement process.

Get in touch to discuss your requirements.