Community Ophthalmology Service for NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board

This Contract Award Notice is to inform the market of the successful award of the Consultant-Led Community Ophthalmology Service in Worcestershire for NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board.

The overall aim of the service is to provide a safe, flexible and efficient community-based Ophthalmology Service for patients aged 16 years and over who are registered with a GP Practice within the County of Worcestershire, UK. For clarity, other commissioned service arrangements are in place for people who are registered with a GP Practice within the County of Herefordshire, ensuring that the local health population is appropriately managed.

The service is expected to operate a specialist-led model offering triage and treatment of patients who are referred into the service for Ophthalmology conditions that do not require treatment under the General Optometry Service criteria for Optometrists nor specialist intervention under the Hospital Eye Service. The service will also be required to accept and manage patients with stable ocular hypertension (glaucoma) following HES diagnosis and treatment, with pathways for escalation as required. Patients are expected to be referred into the service from health professionals, typically the patient's own GP, Optometrist or a secondary care consultant, where it is considered appropriate for those patients to be managed in the community. A senior clinician (MRC Ophth (part 3) and FRC Ophth (fellowship assessment) CCST) is expected to have overall responsibility for the clinical oversight of this proposed service at all times.

The Contract duration is 12 months with the option to extend for a further 12-month period. The Contract start date is the 1st April 2023. NHS Standard Terms and Conditions shall apply. Payments will be in accordance with the local tariffs outlined in the tender process.

Additional information: Light Touch Regime' services: This procurement is for services which are 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 procedure which the contracting authorities followed was set out in the ITT.

As the ICB is a relevant body for the purpose of the National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No 2) Regulations 2013 these Regulations also apply.