Tier 3 Weight Management service NHS/SOEPS/21.796 RFI

NHS Sussex are seeking to procure a specialist weight management tier 3 service as part of the range of weight management services across Sussex.

An RFI questionnaire is available at https://intendhost.co.uk/soepscommissioning/aspx/Home.

The purpose of the RFI Questionnaire is to gauge market interest and feedback via the RFI response form and provide the ICB with valuable information to help update and improve the current service specification.

We request you complete your response and return it via our E-Tendering Portal no later than midday on Monday 15th May 2023.

In addition to this RFI, NHS Sussex will be conducting a Provider Engagement event from 1-2.30pm on Tuesday 9th May. Within that event we will talk through the main proposed changes and the session will include an opportunity for providers to ask questions of the commissioners. The event will take place via MS Teams. If you wish to attend, please send a portal message and include the names, roles and contact details of persons in your organisation who you would like to be invited.

It is anticipated that the new service will be procured via a standard NHS contract with a contract duration of initially five years plus the option to extend by a further two years, commencing 1st April 2024 with the aim of delivering good outcomes for patients and a reduction in the activity for Tier 4 surgery. The length of this contract should support the successful bidder(s) to deliver innovation and efficiencies over that period of time.

This is a process designed to help the Commissioner form a view of the best way to commission the service and is not the beginning of a Tender exercise. A Tender advertisement will be issued in due course. Your feedback at this point will not have a bearing on any future Tender submissions you may wish to offer later. You will not be disadvantaged if you choose not to respond to this RFI, but it will be helpful to understand your views at this early stage and you are encouraged to respond as fully as you can.

Additional information: Aims of the Service

The aims of the Tier 3 weight programme are to:

• motivate and empower patients to make lifestyle changes that facilitate sustainable healthy eating, regular exercise and improved emotional wellbeing enabling patients to maintain their weight loss beyond their term within the T3 weight management programme;

• enable patients to reduce their weight without needing to access surgery;

• reduce the perioperative and outcome risks for patients for whom a surgical intervention is required (including non-bariatric procedures such as hip/knee replacement surgery); and

• enable clinical colleagues, including GPs, to best meet the needs of this complex group of people by adopting a whole pathway approach to manage obesity and facilitating regular interaction and communication between primary care and all NHS and Local Authority commissioned providers of weight management services.

Objectives of the service

• Non-surgical patients will achieve a weight loss of at least 5% by the end of their term within the T3 weight management programme;

• Surgical patients will be classed as fit for surgery at the point of pre-operative assessment; and

• Obese patients will have access to excellent support outside of the T3 weight management programme, such as community-based healthy lifestyle services, through an integrated way of working across the tiers of weight management services.

Benefits of the service

The benefits of delivering this service are:

• Improved general physical health, reducing referrals into other physical health services within the NHS and social care;

• Improved emotional wellbeing, resulting in increased individual wellbeing, economic productivity and reduced use of mental health services; and

• A reduction in the long-term complications of post-bariatric surgery and poorer outcomes for other surgery, through better pre-operative preparation.