NHS England and NHS Improvement - Diabetic Eye Screening Services in Berkshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire and Surrey

This is to inform the market of future commissioning intentions in the South East Region for NHS England & NHS Improvement for Diabetic Eye Screening Services.

Please note the timescales have changed from previous communications, these are indicative, and any planned procurement may be subject to change due to legislative changes expected in 2022.

South Central and West Commissioning Support (CSU) is a commissioning support service hosted by NHS England and is acting on behalf of NHS England & NHS Improvement in the South East to inform the market of future commissioning intentions.

The indicative timeline below is for Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) opportunities in the South East Region for:

Market and Stakeholder engagement to commence - Autumn 2022 Publication of tender - Spring 2023

Planned contract commencement - April 2024

Please note this may be subject to change due to legislative changes expected in 2022.

NHS England and NHS Improvement South East has extended the current DESP contracts by one year to March 2024, in order to allow the services to complete full COVID-19 restoration and recovery of programmes, including the clearance of backlogs and returning uptake to at least pre-pandemic levels. The contract modification (in the form of a contract extension) is justified under regulation 72 (1)(b).

The DESP contracts to which the extensions have been applied to are:

Additional information: The services are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but are instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).