NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) Provision of Services for Out of Hours GP Support to Devon Community Hospitals

NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) are seeking expressions of interest for a potential tender for a provision of services for "out of hours GP support to Devon community hospitals. The service will be provided to patients residing as in-patients in Devon Community Hospitals.

Aim / Purpose of Service

To provide urgent (as opposed to emergency or routine) primary care support to Devon's Community Hospitals during the out-of-hours period where it is required, and the patients' needs cannot be appropriately met in the in-hours period. Hospital staff will be able to seek the advice of a clinician, who will arrange for a GP to attend the hospital to undertake a face-to-face assessment if clinically indicated. This is likely to include (but not be limited to):

• Patients who have had an acute deterioration and it is not clear or appropriate to directly admit to hospital
• Patients at or nearing end of life patients who require an urgent medical review

Hours of Operation

The hours of the service will be as follows:

A full specification and list of defined requirements and outcomes are available to view once registered on the Atamis e-procurement portal. Further detail on registering on Atamis is provided below.

Anticipated Contract Terms

• Service to commence 1st October 2023
• Initial contract term of 6 months with an optional extension of up to 6 months
• The anticipated timelines are set to enable the ICB to review the service and develop a longer term plan.

Budget

The anticipated budget will range from £200,000 - £350,000 for the contract term (this includes the optional up to 6 months extension). The anticipated budget covers funding for a service delivered across the whole of Devon. Providers expressing interest in certain regions / areas would need to note that funding would be apportioned to reflect this.

Contract.

The Commissioner will be contracting for the services using the NHS Standard Clinical Contract 2023/24 version.

Any subsequent awarded contract(s) may be based on community hospital location. Separate NHS Standard Clinical contracts may be issued covering one or more localities within Devon - north, south, east, west.

To submit an expression of interest, providers are asked to firstly register on via this link https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome

Once registered, interested parties are asked to complete the expression of interest by way of an MS Forms questionnaire. The MS Forms questionnaire link can be found within the supplier documents section within the project in Atamis.

The deadline for Interested parties to complete the expression of interest by way of an MS Forms questionnaire is Friday 25th August 2023 at 12 midday BST.

Additional information: If you experience any difficulties completing this questionnaire or registering on Atamis, please contact scwcsu.clinical.procurement@nhs.net

Please note a completed expression of interest form submitted via MS Forms is the only accepted method of expressing an interest (correspondence received by any other route will not be responded to).

Expressions of interest will be treated as commercial in confidence and responses will not be evaluated or used in the potential procurement.

Interested providers will be able to view this opportunity via the live opportunities list on the 'Health Family' e-procurement system, Atamis. Click on 'View our Live Opportunities' from the home page, available on the following link: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome.

Once you have found the opportunity (via the search function, using the title or reference number), to gain full access to the documentation (including MS Forms questionnaire link), you will need to click on 'Register interest' - this will take you to the log-in page.

If you are not already registered on the system, you will need to do so before gaining full access to the documentation and be able to submit an expression of interest.

This notice is an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right, and therefore publication or response does not commit the Authority or respondents to a future procurement, nor provide any process exemptions or preferential treatment to any parties expressing an interest. The Authority will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this exercise.

The services are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but is instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).

This procurement is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioners.