Non Emergency Patient Transport Services for North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group.

NHS North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group has tendered for Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) inclusive of an Assessment and Booking Service for the registered general practice population of North East Essex.

The successful Provider is expected to manage all aspects of the NEPTS service including booking, eligibility and assessment and activity management, transportation, logistics and management information.

Service users expect the NEPTS to integrate as far as possible with other relevant services improving their overall experience. The Provider will recognise a person's holistic needs as far as possible.

The procurement for NEPTS in North East Essex brings together all those services North East Essex CCG is responsible for into a single contract. The rationale for this is that:

• Patients can get confused who to contact with regards to their transport;
• Commissioners have multiple contracts with multiple arrangements in place which sometimes lead to reduced accountability, performance and value for money; and
• Providers lose opportunities for efficiency and ways to innovate.

NEPTS will be commissioned on patient outcomes. This means that the proposed outcomes sets out to achieve ongoing improvements and measures of patient experience. NEPTS outcomes will be mapped back to the National Outcomes Framework, CCG outcome data set and PTS overarching objectives. This will develop over the lifetime of the service and evolve through a series of planned, interim commissioning states in order to develop the provider environment that is seamless and fits around the person.

The main Domains within the NHS Outcome Framework that are likely to be measured against are:

• Domain 2: Enhancing quality of life for people with long-term conditions;
• Domain 3: Helping people to recover from episodes of ill health or following injury;
• Domain 4: Ensuring that people have a positive experience of care; and
• Domain 5: Treating and caring for people in a safe environment and protecting them from avoidable harm.

The PTS high-level outcomes and aims of the service are:

• Resilient, flexible and responsive;
• Customer focussed, safe, comfortable and timely transport;
• Innovation and use of information technology;
• Value for money;
• Good communication and performance information; and
• Green and sustainable.