Adult Hearing Services for NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board

This is an advertisement for soft market testing to gauge market interest which will influence future commissioning and procurement direction.

NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) are looking to seek expressions of interest and feedback from suitably qualified and experienced Providers on their proposed service specification for Adult Hearing Services covering the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

The aim of the service is to provide a comprehensive, personalised service for adults over 50 years of age with hearing loss in line with national guidance and local requirements.

The vision for people with age related hearing problems is for them to receive high quality, efficient services delivered closer to home, with short waiting times and high responsiveness to the needs of local communities, free at the point of access.

Key principles of the hearing service are:

• Contribute to improving the awareness of the importance of good hearing health on wider wellbeing, physical and mental health.
• To provide personalised care, which meets each individual where they are at and provides people with choice and control over how they choose to manage their hearing and communication needs.
• To comply with national clinical and good practice guidance.
• To be accessible to residents of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
• To provide an efficient service for people with hearing loss, that is also cost-effective.
• Equitable access to consistent and high-quality care for all patients using the service.
• To provide a safe hearing service for patients that demonstrates robust quality assurance processes.

It is anticipated that any future Contract would be for a period of 3 years with the option to extend for up to a further 24 months. The ICB may award multiple Contracts across the geographic area of Herefordshire and Worcestershire to cater for the needs of the entire geographic area. NHS Standard Terms and Conditions would apply.

Any Provider wishing to express interest should complete the questionnaire, which can be found at https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome no later than 12:00 noon on Tuesday 06th June 2023.

The ICB intends to publish the Contract Notice for this requirement around Tuesday 20th June 2023. Please note those expressing interest will still be required to register for any future procurement and should not rely on their response to this EOI.

Additional information: It should be noted that this is not a procurement exercise at this stage and participating organisations are responsible for their own costs. All details provided by the ICB are in draft format, the ICB reserves the right to change/amend any aspect of the requirement prior to any potential future procurement exercise.

To register your Expression of Interest (EOI) in attending the Market Engagement event, please complete the questionnaire on the Atamis Health Family eCommercial System https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome.

The closing date for EOIs is 12:00 noon on the Tuesday 6th June 2023.

This future procurement is for Light Touch Regime services for the purpose of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as specified in Schedule 3 of the Regulations ("Regulations"). Accordingly, the Contracting Authorities are only bound by those parts of the Regulations detailed in Chapter 3 Particular Procurement Regimes Section 7. The Contracting Authorities are not voluntarily following any other part of the regulations.

The ICB is a relevant body for the purpose of the National Health Service (procurement, patient choice and competition) (No. 2) Regulations 2013.