Prime Service to General Practice across Suffolk and North East Essex

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex (SNEE) Integrated Care Board (ICB) has awarded a contract to contract to GP Primary Choice Ltd , for the provision of a PRIME Service to General Practice across Suffolk and North East Essex.

The contract commences on 1st April 2024, expiring on 31st March 2025.

A voluntary ex ante transparency notice relating to this matter was published on 28th December 2023 (Notice reference: 2023/S 000-037971), the standstill for which expired midnight on 8th January 2023.

The incumbent provider (GP Primary Choice Ltd) has successfully delivered this service for the past 12 months and has the knowledge, expertise and experience from close working partnerships with General Practice partners that is difficult to develop in a short space of time from any other provider.

This service retains in depth knowledge of the Practices it serves and embedded and trusted relationships with multiple partners, particularly in General Practice teams such as Practice Managers and Practice partners.. The current service provider has become known with local providers and has extremely positive feedback from all partners, which has taken considerable time and effort to obtain. Introducing a new provider risks disrupting these vital links, which would set back the service offer and increase the risks faced by General Practice.

It is well known that mistrust of services within this sector is apparent, hence relationship building has been a key requirement of this service throughout the course of the original pilot. GPPC has worked to develop relationships which support and enable access to key Practice data that assists in the identification and delivery of key quality improvement opportunities within Practices for the benefit of both the Practice and the population. It is believed that introducing a different organisation with different branding to deliver this service would significantly impact the ability to effectively engage with General Practice, due to the need to establish trust with individuals.

The service has experienced and trained staff in place that have worked locally within General Practice and developed that trust with General Practice teams which can flex to the needs of the Practices to maintain best practice throughout the length of the contract.

The ICB deem that changing providers at a time where General Practice are under increasing pressure and facing ever increasing challenges, would have an adverse impact on service delivery for the population that it serves. The ICB is therefore seeking to re-commission the current provider to continue its service delivery for the short duration of the 12 month contract to provide stability in a fragile environment.

The ICB will award the contract utilising the NHS terms and conditions of goods and non-clinical services.