NHS Harrow Walk-in Centre Services

NHS Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is exploring the provision of three GP walk-in centres in the following areas:

The Walk in Services will operate between 8.00 and 20.00 Monday to Sunday; and consideration will be given to longer opening hours. The service will be available to all people eligible to use NHS Services.

The CCG is considering enabling up to 25% of appointments available to be bookable via appointment through registered GP practices in Harrow

It is likely that the contract or contracts will be let for a period of up to 2 years, with an option to extend by mutual agreement for a period of up to 2 years. Within the contract will be an option for the commissioner to terminate with six months notice.

The CCG is inviting interested parties to engage with it on the future provision of these services with a view to seeking input and feedback from potential providers of these services to help inform the CCG as it considers its requirements and routes to market.

The first two walk-in centres are currently provided within the Harrow borough boundaries and within premises which the CCG will make available to the prospective successful providers. No premises have been identified for the third walk in service and prospective providers will be required to identify a suitably accessible location to deliver the service.

NHS England has made a commitment to developing a coherent 24/7 urgent care service in every area of England that makes sense to patients when they (the patients) have to make choices about their care. In addition, NHS England is keen to drive the integration of urgent care services generally. It also committed to the provision of integrated NHS services seven days a week in order that patients experience genuine seven day care. In Harrow it is expected that better integration will be delivered through:

This engagement exercise will assist the CCG in compiling a Memorandum of Information (MoI) and service specification. An engagement questionnaire has been developed to capture input from providers to help inform the CCG’s key decisions around these services.

The current combined contract value relating to the above services is a total of circa £1.5M. If the CCG decides to undertake a formal procurement process, this is anticipated to commence in late December 2015 through a notice on Contracts Finder, with the intention to have a contract(s) awarded in February or March 2016 and for services to commence by September 2016 for the WiCs.

See the attachments to this notice for further information.

Additional information: Dear Colleagues

Further to the Provider Engagement Event in December please find attached a copy of a report about walk in centre services which will be considered by the Harrow CCG Governing Body tomorrow. The paper asks the CCG to reconfirm its requirement for walk in services and to give direction about the configuration of services required given the likely operating costs and resources available.

Following the Governing Body, the non-conflicted Procurement Panel will meet to finalise arrangements for completing the procurement utilising the advice provided by NHS Shared Business Services.

Interested individuals are invited to attend the Governing Body meeting, which is held in public at the CCG from 2.15 on Tuesday 19 January at the Heights. Following the Governing Body and the Procurement Panel meeting the CCG will issue an update to interested bodies on key decisions and next steps.

Kind regards

Dylan Champion

Assistant Chief Operating Officer (Interim)

Harrow CCG

Note: An expression of interest is no indication of a commitment to participate in any subsequent procurement process, nor does it infer any special status on those providers who do submit an interest. Neither will this notice or any organisation’s expression of interest commit the CCG to undertake any procurement of the Walk-in Centre services. The CCG has a right to withdraw the notice at any time.

Providers are invited to express their interest in the early engagement by emailing the completed engagement response form and/or the engagement questionnaire to kieran_mcgowan@nhs.net.

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS is 12 NOON, MONDAY 14TH DECEMBER 2015.

In addition to this early engagement notice and questionnaire, the Contracting Authority is intending to hold a market engagement event. This will take place at 2.00pm on Wednesday 16 December at Harrow CCG, The Heights, Lowlands Road Harrow. Respondents should indicate their intention to attend this event with their expression of interest

At this event suppliers will have the opportunity to: