Referral Triage Services - NHS Birmingham Cross City CCG (Market Engagement Event)

NHS Birmingham Cross City CCG is looking to undertake a procurement to commission a twelve month pilot to deliver referral triage services for elective referrals from primary care. The anticipated start date of this service is the 1st April 2016 and is part of a wider project to test out different approaches to referral triage.

As well as triaging referrals, this service is expected to also include education/up skilling of primary care and resourcing GP membership to manage activity as result of triage referrers providing advice and guidance for conservative management within general practice. Currently it is expected that the referral triage services will need to be able to cover a wide range of elective specialities.

The service would aim to deliver the following outcomes: • Improve quality of referrals through effective triage; • Eliminating inappropriate referral activity through patients being seen in the right setting first time; • Up skilling of general practice in specific disease areas through CPD and education supported by consultant feedback; • Improved patient experience and satisfaction by patient been seen in appropriate setting first time. • Production of robust intelligence to inform future commissioning decisions • To test and evaluate proof of concept particularly in regard to the feasibility of managing the demand for hospital-based outpatient services Service Description: The service would provide clinical assessment by experienced and specially trained consultants in defined specialties who would triage referral letters from general practice and then send back to the GP for conservative management or onward referral to secondary care, promoting choice through national Choose & Book system. To avoid delays, triage of referrals will be undertaken in 2 working days. To up skill in specific disease areas, provider will be required to support education and training of primary care in management of specific disease areas within general practice. Success Factors: The CCG expects that providers would have the following capability: • Independent and impartial clinicians who have experience and knowledge of UK healthcare system • Have access facilities to accept referrals via choose & book and make onward referrals via Choose & Book • Have functionality which allows interoperability of clinical system with CCG NHS IT systems to allow information flows efficiently and securely across the designated and implemented pathways using NHS N3 connection. • Ability to offer seven day working.

The CCG is holding a market engagement event with potential providers who may be interested delivering this service on 4th June 2015 at 13:00 hours (venue to be confirmed).

The purpose of this event is for the CCG to share thinking about the model of delivery, pathway and financial tariffs.

Additional information: NHS Birmingham Cross City Clinical Commissioning Group currently intends to launch a procurement opportunity later in 2015 to source a service provider who will enter into an agreement to deliver a 12 month Referral Triage service pilot. As part of the commissioning process NHS Birmingham Cross City CCG is seeking to engage with potential service providers. Accordingly, we announce the launch of a market engagement event and invite any organisations that are interested in the opportunity to be involved. The engagement exercise will comprise of a Market Engagement Event on Thursday 4th June 2015. Note: Participation in the market engagement exercise is not a mandatory requirement for participating in any future procurement process. A contract notice will be placed in OJEU / Contracts Finder when the CCG is ready to commence the procurement process. Should you wish to participate in any future procurement process you WILL need to respond to the contract notice when published. Registration for the Market Engagement Event on Thursday 4th June 2015 will close at 5.00pm on Tuesday 2nd June 2015.

REGISTERING FOR THE MARKET ENGAGEMENT: This exercise will be conducted on the Midlands & Lancashire CSU procurement portal at: https://mlcsu.bravosolution.co.uk. Candidates wishing to attend the engagement event on the 4th June 2015 must register through the portal as follows: i) Candidates should register on the portal at https://mlcsu.bravosolution.co.uk (registration and use of the website is free of charge). If your organisation has registered previously, you do not need to re-register. ii) Once registered, candidates must express interest by a) logging-in to the Portal, b)selecting response to advert and PQQ (search for reference number pqq_375 - note that the reference is "pqq", but this is NOT a formal pre-qualification questionnaire), c) select Open Access PQQ, d) search for and access listing related to this contract and view details, e) click on Express Interest link iii)Once you have expressed interest, access the My PQQs page where you can access and download documentation providing information about the market engagement event (If applicable). You must submit your reply by the deadlines stated. For technical support in submitting your expression of interest, contact the BravoSolution Help-desk on 0800 368 4850 or help@bravosolution.co.uk. If and when this requirement is offered to tender, this will be done via electronic means.