Direct Award of Subcontract for the Provision of Integrated Urgent Care: Sub-contract 1: (i) Clinical Assessment Service; (ii) Face-to-Face Appointments; (iii) Home Visiting

Concepts

• clinical assessment service
• health and social work
• bicester
• sub-contract
• home visiting
• urgent care
• face appointments
• face
• north hampshire urgent care
• result of south central ambulance service nhs foundation trust

Location

Bicester

Description

This is modifying an existing contract award notice of a subcontract for the provision of: (i) Clinical Assessment Service; (ii) Face-to-Face Appointments; (iii) Home Visiting made under Contract Award Notice 2020/S 214-525835 published on 3 November 2020. The award of this subcontract was as the result of South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) being awarded the lead contract for NHS111/Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) services by the Hampshire and Surrey Heath Partnership from June 2021. The contract award notice for the award to SCAS was published on 3 April 2020 (ref 2020/S 067-160620). The original procurement for Lot 1 – Sub-contract 1: (i) Clinical Assessment Service; (ii) Face-to-Face Appointments; (iii) Home Visiting awarded to North Hampshire Urgent Care was for annual costs of GBP 6 266 000 (GBP 43 866 000 over 7 years). As we approach contract mobilisation we have greater certainty of the additional costs above but the costs of 111 First on an ongoing basis are still being reviewed. Nevertheless, we are clear that the maximum annual value of the contracts, allowing for reasonable levels of activity growth and inflation will be as follows: Lot 1 – Sub-contract 1: (i) Clinical Assessment Service; (ii) Face-to-Face Appointments; (iii) Home Visiting awarded to North Hampshire Urgent Care will be for annual costs between GBP 7 059 000 and GBP 7 423 000 (between GBP 49 413 000 and GBP 51 961 000 over 7 years).

Ammendments to Previous Notice

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 85000000 - Health and social work services

Indicators

• Contract modified due to unforeseen circumstances.

Legal Justification

Please see detail provided throughout this modification notice for Provision of Integrated Urgent Care — Lot 1 – Sub-contract 1: (i) Clinical Assessment Service; (ii) Face-to-Face Appointments; (iii) Home Visiting.

Other Information

As a result of NHS England mandating the implementation of ‘111 First’ nationally (partly as a response to the pandemic), the commissioners of the lead contract with South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) have had to procure additional services above what was included in the original procurement. NHS organisations are working together to deliver this enhancement to the NHS 111 service in a coordinated way. The initiative is part of a national requirement, that all systems will have implemented a minimum specification of the clinical model by December 2020, as set out at the NHS England and NHS Improvement Board Meeting in Common held on 28 July 2020. https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-england-and-nhs-improvement-board-mee... This was, subsequently endorsed by a directive within the Third Phase of the NHS Response to Covid-19 letter from Simon Stevens (NHS England on 31 July 2020). By developing the current NHS 111 service to offer patients a different approach to the way they seek out and receive urgent healthcare, we are able to: • promote NHS 111 (both online and via existing telephony) as the first point of contact for people experiencing a non-life-threatening health issue; • encourage a move away from (but not exclusion of) going to a physical location as the first choice to access healthcare when it is needed urgently; • embrace remote assessment and the technology that supports it; • prevent nosocomial infection by minimising the opportunity for patients to congregate together in ED waiting rooms; • ensure patients get a clear direction of what they need to do and where they need to go in order to resolve their issue; • protect those most at risk by giving them an enhanced service. In short, there are fundamental benefits to the requirement to keep people who need urgent care, and those who treat them, safe – preventing the spread of infection, which could be brought about by having too many people grouped together at any one time. Key functions and enhancements from this service include: • direct booking into: — Emergency Departments, and — Minor Injuries Units (MIU) and Urgent Treatment Centres (UTC) — Hospital Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) — Primary Care. • clinical triage of all ED and lower category ambulance dispositions. The anticipated main benefits from the enhanced contract will be: • a reduced proportion of ED dispositions; • an increased proportion of out of hospital dispositions; • an increased proportion of self-care dispositions; • improved quality of service (designed by governance group); • better patient experience. As this was an increase in the scope of the existing contract, and was an integral part of it, there was no option but to use the same provider as this additional work could not be provided separately from the main contract. Business continuity for this essential service is covered robustly by the policies and procedures already designed and managed by our existing providers, so a separate procurement and award for a small integrated part of the overall contract would not be feasible. This modification does not change the overall nature of the sub-contract. As we approach contract mobilisation we have greater certainty of the additional costs above but the costs of 111 First on an ongoing basis are still being reviewed. Nevertheless, we are clear that the maximum annual value of the sub-contract, allowing for reasonable levels of activity growth and inflation will be as follows: