The Provision of a GP Visiting (Pathfinder) Service and a Community Intravenous Therapy Service on behalf of NHS Stockport CCG

NHS Stockport Commissioning Group (NHS Stockport CCG) is seeking bids from suitably qualified service providers to deliver 2 services:

Lot 1: GP Visiting (Pathfinder) Service – contract value over 3 years £900,000

Lot 2: Community IntraVenous (IV) Therapy Service – contract value over 3 years £1,462,500

The aims and objectives of the Pathfinder GP Visiting Service (Lot 1) are to 1) Deliver high quality safe clinical service 2) Shift activity from acute settings and into the community 3) Reduce readmissions 4) Reduce emergency ambulance activity. The basic principles are that i) patients must be clinically appropriate to be seen by the service as determined by outcomes from application of the pathfinder tool ii) Referrals will be from a place of safety iii)The Provider will undertake a face to face assessment of the patient as identified by the Pathfinder tool within two hours and agree an appropriate management plan with the patient. Hours of operation will be Monday – Sunday 24 hours. Population covered will be all residents that are GP registered within Stockport localities and all patients aged > 16.

The Community IV Therapy service (Lot 2) will enable patients who are medically stable and whose only reason for admission is the requirement for IV antibiotic therapy, to be treated in a home or community clinic setting. The key objective is to safely and effectively manage patients with infections as outpatients, ensuring that their treatment is optimised, appropriately delivered and supervised and that risks are minimised. Patients will be assessed for their suitability to receive IV therapy in the community. Clinician reviews of the referral should take place within 30 minutes and the nurse visit to the patient within 4 hours to commence antibiotic therapy. The service will operate 24/7 (clinical responsibility and patient helpline), assessing and managing all patients requiring Intravenous Therapy onto the caseload whilst retaining clinical responsibility for these patients until the point of discharge. Administration of IV therapy would take place between the hours of Monday to Sunday 0800-1900.Bidders may submit Bids for one or two lots. Both Contracts will be awarded for three years with the opportunity to extend for a further two years. The expected contract commencement date is from 1st July 2016 with the services fully operational by 30th June 2019.

This tender process will be conducted as one stage procedure similar to that of an Open Process. Bidders wishing to participate should register on the EU-Supply Website (https://nhssbs.eu-supply.com) to access the documentation using reference 20609, available from 28th January 2016 and should be completed and submitted by the closing date of 12:00 noon on 3rd March 2016. For any technical support using eu-supply, please contact the e-Tendering Help-desk on 0800 840 2050 or support@eu-supply.com. For any other queries, please contact Kathryn Farquhar at kathryn_farquhar1@nhs.net