Community Intermediate Care Flexi Beds in West Birmingham

Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (SWB CCG) shortly intends to launch a procurement opportunity to source a service provider to provide 20 flexible beds in one location within West Birmingham in order to provide extra intermediate care, enhanced assessment, holistic assessment and interim capacity to enhance patient flow. It is intended that the intermediate bed service will be for patients who require:-

• Step up from community to avoid an acute admission
• Step down from hospital to provide an interim nursing bed for a short period of time until a longer term bed is found
• Step down from hospital for patients who need on-going intensive therapy but are medically fit for discharge from hospital.

The provider will be required to commission GP cover for these beds.

In order to enhance the CCG’s understanding of the market for this service, SWB CCG is seeking to engage with potential providers at a Market Engagement Event and invite any organisations that are interested in this opportunity to engage with us on 20 October 2015, 12-2pm in West Bromwich. At the event attendees will : •See a presentation from commissioners regarding this requirement

•Get an understanding of the process intended to be followed for this requirement

•Be able to make comment with regard to the current draft specification

•Ask questions of commissioners.

Please note also that participation in the market engagement exercise is not a mandatory requirement for participating in the procurement.

Registration for the Market Engagement Event will close at 12 noon on 16 October 2015.

The contract period is 3 years plus one 2 year option to extend with a maximum estimated cost of up to £6.5m.

In undertaking the procurement, SWB CCG is working with the Midlands & Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit.

Additional information: EXPRESSING INTEREST IN TAKING PART AND REGISTERING FOR THE MARKET ENGAGEMENT EVENT TO

BE HELD ON 20 OCTOBER 2015:

This exercise will be conducted on the Midlands & Lancashire CSU portal at https://mlcsu.bravosolution.co.uk. Candidates wishing to take part in this market engagement and attend the engagement event must register their expression of interest 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_387 - 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. You must submit your reply by 12 noon on 16 October 2015.

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.