NHS Southport & Formby CCG and South Sefton CCG Optometry First (First Contact Practitioner) Services

NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) is supporting NHS Southport & Formby CCG and South Sefton CCG who are the Contracting Authority for this opportunity. The CCGs are also working in partnership with NHS West Lancashire CCG and Southport & Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust. The Contracting Authority wishes to award a contract for an Optometry First (First Contact Practitioner) Service for patients in the CCG area.

The Authority is awarding a contract to a Prime Contractor who will manage a range of Optometry First (First Contact Practitioner) Services. The services are designed to provide safe, integrated, and sustainable system-wide clinical care pathways to support COVID-19 recovery and restoration and the prevention of avoidable visual impairment.

The Contracting Authority wishes to award a 3-year contract with the option to extend for a further 1 x 1-year period.

Additional information: This Contract Award Notice is published under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. It is for clinical services which are Light Touch Regime services for the purpose of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as specified in Schedule 3 of the Regulations ('Regulations'). Accordingly, the contracting authority is only bound by those parts of the Regulations detailed in Chapter 3 Particular Procurement Regimes Section 7. The contracting authority is not voluntarily following any other part of the Regulations.

A call for Expressions of Interest has previously been carried out and Primary Eyecare Services were the only service provider to submit a response to the call for Expressions of Interest and in that response, provided evidence of the capability and capacity to deliver the service.

Following publication of the VEAT notice on Friday 10th June 2022, there will be a 10-day standstill period, concluding on Monday 20th June 2022. Following satisfactory conclusion of the standstill period, the CCG will enter into a contract with Primary Eyecare Services Ltd for 3 year(s) with the option to extend by 1 x 1-year period.