The Integrated Gynaecology Service

This is a Contract Award Notice to communicate a contract award made by the Contracting Authority; Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board, (hereinafter referred to as "the Authority") in compliance with their local standing financial instructions (SFIs).

On 29th December 2023, the Authority published a Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency Notice (VEAT) (Reference 2023/S 000-038008) to inform the market of its intention to award the contract. The Authority applied a voluntary 10-day standstill period prior to conclusion of the contract. The contract award is made to The Gynaecology Partnership Ltd for the provision of The Integrated Gynaecology Service

The proposed new contract is intended to start on 1st April 2024 and end on 31st March 2025. The expected value of this contract is £1,900,284. The value expressed in this notice is the expected value of the 1-year period. Please note that these are expected values and may be amended post contract finalisation with the provider.

The Gynaecology Partnership Ltd has been providing this service since 2019 and is due to expire on 31st March 2024. The total cumulative value of the contract since it started from 2019 - 2024 is £9,204,658 (excluding VAT and excluding the value of this new contract).

The Five Year Forward View set out an ambition to deliver more healthcare out of acute hospitals and closer to home, with the aim of providing better care for patients, reducing the number of unplanned bed days in hospital, and reducing net costs. To achieve this objective, the organisation previously known as NHS Herts Valleys CCG (HVCCG) commissioned a range of community services from the independent sector and NHS providers. The contract between HVCCG and the Gynaecology Partnership Ltd was entered into from 1 April 2018 following a Multi-Provider Pathway Collaborative (MPPC) due diligence process. The community gynaecology service has successfully delivered gynaecology clinics across all four localities in south and west Hertfordshire. The contract is due to expire 31 March 2024.

The Gynaecology Partnership Ltd has subcontracts with West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (WHTHT), Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. The service operates between primary care, community, and secondary care services to provide specialist assessment, treatment, non-complex procedures, and direct listing of appropriate onward referrals to secondary care. The service excludes 2-week cancer referrals, inpatient elective, and non-elective care. The service has offered training sessions within community clinics for gynaecology registrars at WHTHT which is currently being built into registrar rotas and this ongoing arrangement is included within the revised service specification to support future gynaecology workforce training and development.

Additional information:

The NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (HWE ICB) was incorporated on 1st July 2022 and includes the three previous clinical commissioning groups. Since the HWE ICB was incorporated, we have been working to review services across each 'place' to ensure that there is equity of access for our patients across the broader ICB area.

The provider is an incumbent provider in HWE ICB in south and west Herts (SWH) place since 2018 and delivers a good quality, timely service to south and west Herts patients and is integrally linked with all existing trusts in the SWH area. The contract extension will enable continuity of service with the community and local trusts working together in a collaborative way following the pathways which have been agreed by all local trust gynaecology clinical leads in SWH place. Furthermore, the extension will enable time for an ICB wide review of Gynaecology services to explore the potential for further efficiencies and the potential to expand the community model to other ICB place areas.