NHS 111 (Integrated Urgent Care) DRAFT Service Specification & Market Engagement Questionnaire

EARLY ENGAGEMENT NOTICE

Market Sounding

PROCUREMENT FOR THE PROVISION OF THE INTEGRATED URGENT CARE SERVICE (111/Out of Hours Services) ON BEHALF OF THE NORTH WEST LONDON CLINICAL COMMISSIONING GROUPS

The North West London CCGs listed below will be inviting tenders for an Integrated Urgent Care Service (111/Out of Hours services) in North West London. The North West London CCGs will be the contracting authorities and are listed below:-

NHS Brent CCG, NHS Harrow CCG, NHS Hillingdon CCG, NHS Central London CCG, NHS West London CCG, NHS Hammersmith & Fulham CCG, NHS Hounslow CCG and NHS Ealing CCG.

The Invitation to Tender will be open to all suitably qualified providers. This notice is voluntary and does not mean that the Contracting Authority accepts that the Regulations apply to this intended procurement to any greater extent just by virtue of the publication of the notice or utilisation of a particular procurement process.

The Keogh Urgent and Emergency Care Review proposes a fundamental shift in the way urgent and emergency care services are provided, improving out of hospital services so that more care is delivered closer to home and hospital attendances and admissions are thereby reduced. There is a need, therefore, for a system that is safe, patient centred, sustainable and provides consistently high quality.

The core vision for a more closely Integrated Urgent Care service builds upon the success of NHS111 in simplifying access for patients and increasing the confidence that they, local commissioners and the public have in their services.

The offer for the public will be a single entry point - NHS 111 - to fully integrate local urgent care services in which organisations collaborate to deliver high quality, clinical assessment, advice and treatment. This will include shared standards and processes and with clear accountability and leadership.

It is anticipated that the procurement process for this service will start in mid-2016, and, subject to a successful procurement process, the service will go live in Q1 2017/18.

The Contracting Authority intends for the contract to be awarded for a 3 year duration with the possibility of up to 1 (one) extension for 2 (two) years, subject to any restrictions placed nationally by NHS England or the Department of Health.

The following draft service specification document is intended to provide additional information on the Service. The draft service specification is still undergoing development and this market engagement exercise is part of that process. The draft service specification will be under development up to the publication of any Invitation to tender (ITT).

Additional information: Providers are requested to submit their views on the draft service specification (and to complete the attached market sounding proforma and questionnaire if they wish to and have not already done so), and emailing them to kieran_mcgowan@nhs.net by no later than 5.00pm on Monday 18 April 2016. In particular, the Contracting Authorities would like to know if you, as a Provider, feel that the draft service specification provides you with enough information for you to submit a realistic bid? If your answer to this is no, what areas do you feel need to be included or further developed. (Information on likely activity/workload and telephony/interoperability issues will be included in any final service specification.)

This exercise is not part of any pre-qualification or selection process. It is intended as an awareness, communication and information gathering exercise.

Further RFI activities and other market engagement activities may be conducted at the appropriate time as/if required to further develop the information provided. Interested providers should be aware that any expenditure, work or effort undertaken by you prior to a formal procurement process or the award of a contract is a matter solely for your own commercial judgement. This is a market testing exercise only and contracting authorities reserve the right to withdraw this exercise at any time or to re-invite expressions of interest on the same or alternative basis or to vary the process at its sole discretion.

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) will be providing procurement support to the Contracting Authority and will utilise an electronic tendering portal hosted by EU-Supply to manage this Procurement and communicate with Bidders. Accordingly, there will be no hard copy of documents issued to Bidders and all communications with NHS SBS, including the electronic submission of Bids will be conducted via the EU-Supply e-tendering portal which is available at https://nhssbs.eu-supply.com.

It is free to register on EU-Supply, and it can be accessed at any time of day. Should Bidders have any queries, or if Bidders are having problems registering on the portal, they should contact the EU-Supply dedicated Supplier Helpdesk by calling 0800 840 2050 (Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm) or email support@eu-supply.com.

The EU-Supply quick user guide is attached to this notice. It is recommended that registration take place as soon as possible.