Provision of primary care nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry and inpatients services to HMPs Downview, Coldingley, High Down and Send

NHS England seek to commission primary care nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry and inpatients* services for HMP Downview, HMP Coldingley, HMP High Down and HMP Send.

A prior information/market engagement notice was published on the Contracts Finder website in January 2016, which anticipated that a single, integrated contract would be let for all of the in-scope services across the four prisons. Subsequently, and in order to maintain contractual independence and flexibility for each prison, a decision has been taken by NHS England to procure the in-scope healthcare services as a separate lot for each prison.

Procurement lots:

Lot 1 –

Primary care nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry services to HMP Downview

Lot 2 –

Primary care nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry services to HMP Coldingley

Lot 3 –

Primary care nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry and inpatients services to HMP High Down*

Lot 4 –

Primary care nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry services to HMP Send

• Please note that only Lot 3 (HMP High Down) also includes inpatients services

The contracts are due to begin in April 2017 (aside from some dentistry services for lots 2-4, for which contract commencement is to be deferred to April 2018. Further information on this requirement will be provided at the Invitation To Tender stage).

Under each lot, NHS England will commission a prime provider model for prison healthcare services, in order to support integrated, patient centred care across the full range of service specialties required to manage the complex healthcare needs of those in the prison setting. The service specifications provided at tender stage will set out the range of services required by the commissioner.

NHS England will contract with the prime provider for each prison, who in turn can directly provide care and/or subcontract care to other specialist providers for primary care nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry and inpatients services (where applicable). The prime provider will also be responsible for ensuring that all healthcare services operating within the prison work in an integrated way, delivering seamless care pathways.

Services will be supportive of each other and the patient, minimising repetition and handoffs. Services under the prime provider model will be accountable not only for their own area of specialism but also to work together to contribute to the functioning of the healthcare services as a whole. The prime provider will hold overall clinical, governance and financial accountability for healthcare services in the prison, coordinating provision and distributing funding etc.

The closing date for registering an expression of interest and returning completed Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) is 12 Noon on 25th May 2016.

Additional details/description is continued in Additional Text below.

Additional information: The initial contract term for each lot will be three years, with the option to extend by a further two years (although please note that the contracts for the dentistry elements which commence in 2018 will be coterminous with the contracts commencing in 2017, i.e. it is anticipated that these will be for a two year period, with the option to extend for a further two years).

The maximum annual contract values are listed below (these figures exclude services which the prime provider is responsible for coordinating but not for direct delivery).

Maximum annual contract values:

Lot 1 - £1,356,000 Lot 2 - £655,000 Lot 3 - £3,770,000 Lot 4 - £915,000

In line with current NHS requirements, prison healthcare services will be contracted using the following:

The prior information/market engagement notice allowed specialist providers of the services being commissioned to respond if they would like commissioners to pass their contact details on to potential prime providers. Contact details of those providers who responded to this have been made available on the In-Tend e-tendering portal.

Please note that the previous prior information/market engagement notice was an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right. Although those who responded to that notice will be advised that this contract notice has been published, there will be no process exemptions or preferential treatment afforded to any parties who expressed an interest at that stage.

NHS England will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this process.

Bidders must be aware that, although this procurement is undertaken in good faith, potential government policy changes could enact changes to prison healthcare provision, including the possibility that healthcare contracts would be held by bodies other than NHS England. Bidders/providers must be prepared to work with commissioners to implement any nationally mandated directives, whether during the procurement or ensuing contracts.

Interested parties must submit a compliant Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) if they wish to be further considered, which will evaluate the capacity, capability and experience of potential bidders. Bidders shortlisted at the PQQ stage will be asked to take part in an Invitation To Tender (ITT) process, designed to identify the Most Economically Advantageous Tender and therefore determine the incoming provider.

The procurement will be conducted through the commissioner’s In-Tend e-procurement system. More information on next steps and the procurement process in general is also provided within the Memorandum of Information and PQQ documentation, which is available through the In-Tend system.