NECS454 Request for Information South Tyneside Community Diagnostic Respiratory Hub

North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is working for and on behalf of NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) (the Contracting Authority) who wish to alert the market to a potential future tender opportunity to deliver a South Tyneside Community Diagnostic Respiratory Hub for the South Tyneside local patient population. The aims of the hub are to: • Provide accurate diagnosis, based on improved quality of diagnostic spirometry and reduction in variation, which will improve diagnosis and long-term monitoring of patients with respiratory disease.

• Ensure the community diagnostics respiratory team have a good skill mix and a multi-disciplinary team working together to ensure accurate diagnosis, treatment plan, medicine optimisation and inhaler techniques.

• Support delivery of the five fundamentals of COPD care, with a focus on smoking cessation, pulmonary rehabilitation, personalised self-management planning, and optimising treatment for co-morbidities, as defined by NICE.

• Provide a proactive case finding service to support the early identification of those at risk of respiratory conditions.

• Provide care in the community which is easily accessible by patients.

• Ensure patients have a positive experience of care and are empowered to self-care.

• Ensure effective communication between all relevant health professionals and patients

It is important to note that this PIN is not a call for competition and as such potential providers will need to express an interest in any future tender opportunity once a contract notice is published on Find and Tender Service and on Contracts Finder. It should be noted that this PIN/RFI invites individuals and organisations to express an interest in this RFI exercise only, and it is NOT a pre-qualification questionnaire, and is NOT part of any pre-qualification or selection process. This PIN/RFI is intended as an awareness, communication, and information gathering exercise for the Contracting Authority to ascertain if there is any genuine interest in the market to deliver this service. An expression of interest is no indication of a commitment to participate in the RFI process nor does it infer any preferential or special status on those individuals and organisations who express an interest in the RFI exercise.

Additional information: NECS is utilising an electronic tendering portal (In-Tend) to manage this process and as such interested individuals and organisations will need to register on the portal to submit their expression of interest. The InTend e-Tendering portal can be found at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/nhsnecsu/aspx/Home Please note that it is free to register on InTend, which can be accessed at any time of day as long as you have a working internet connection. Should you have any queries, or are having problems registering on the portal, you should contact the e-tendering provider by Email: [email protected] or by phone 0844 2728810, Website: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/nhsnecsu/aspx/Home

Helpdesk Support is available (Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5.00pm). Potential providers are to note that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (as amended) may apply to a future procurement including the New Fair Deal non-statutory policy setting out how pensions issues are to be dealt with when staff are compulsorily transferred from the public sector to independent providers delivering public services. To express an interest in delivery of the service, please send a message confirming your interest via the correspondence tab within InTend prior to the deadline.

The RFI documents will be available from the e-tendering portal Intend from Wednesday 21 December 2022.

All completed RFI responses must be submitted by the deadline of 5pm on 11 January 2023.