The Provision of Integrated Urgent Care Services on behalf of the South West London Integrated Care System

The Contracting Authority is inviting expressions of interest from suitably experienced and capable providers, to provide future Integrated Urgent Care Services across South West London.

Likely contract duration is 3 years, with potential for extension of further 2 years (5 years max). The modelled value of the contract is circa £16m per year, with an overall contract value across 5 years worth potentially £80m.

A competitive procurement is being presumed, which is currently scheduled to commence in September 2021 to enable a contract to be awarded by December 2021. Service commencement is anticipated by June 2022. This will be subject to sufficient expressions of interest being received.

The IUC Clinical Service in SWL will consist of a single service with one specification and one contract for the whole of SWL (Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth CCGs). The Service will comprise of five parts:

i. LAS Call Service (not in scope, covering*lines, dental, pharmacy, *5call-back and Cat 3 & 4 validation);

ii. NHS 111 Call Centre (with exclusions above)

iii. Clinical Assessment Service

iv. Face to Face site visits outside of core general practice (GMS) hours; and

v. Home visits outside of core general practice (GMS) hours.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the SWL IUC Service is to provide the entry point for patients needing urgent care support. It will mean patients will access unscheduled care through the NHS 111 telephony service, or NHS 111 Online and, following appropriate clinical support over the telephone delivered by CAS, thy receive a complete episode of care concluding with either: advice, a prescription or an appointment for further assessment or treatment.

Where a patient needs face-to-face services outside of core GMS hours, the IUC Clinical Service will book an appointment for the patient or schedule a visit to their home in line with agreed protocols and patient need.

Wherever possible, patients, who need further care not offered by the IUC Clinical Service, should have appointments made for them in services appropriate to their need.

The SWL ICS is seeking to engage with potential suppliers of these services to understand market capability, readiness and capacity to inform its procurement intentions. Due to the breadth of the IUC services being procured, it is anticipated that suppliers will need to work together (e.g. in lead provider/sub-contractor model, a consortium, a special purpose vehicle or other similar arrangement) in order to deliver the contract. This Prior Information Notice implies no commitment from the lead CCGs or any other CCG it acts on behalf of to publish a Contract Notice.

The Contracting Authority has published the draft specification for the IUC Service on the EU-Supply portal, as per the link above. Interested Suppliers are requested to visit the portal, search for the opportunity (ID: 45585) and review the documents contained therein.

Additional information: Suppliers are invited to attend an online market engagement event on 2nd September 2021, which will be an opportunity to understand more about the Contracting Authority's requirements and to engage with other interested suppliers who may require service delivery partners.

>>>If you wish to attend this market engagement event, please register via EU-Supply at http://nhsbs.eu-supply.com by 27th August 2021.

Eu-Supply account registration is FREE. The EU-Supply portal (http://nhsbs.eu-supply.com) will be used to communicate with interested providers, including sharing latest documents being developed by the CCG ahead of any procurement process. It will also be used to confirm to interested providers details and timing of the procurement process, if one is to take place.

The Contracting Authority reserves the right to engage further with suppliers individually or collectively to explore solutions and to validate and refine its specification prior to any future procurement.

If you need technical support on the EU-Supply portal, please contact the SU-Supply helpdesk on 0800 840 2050 or [email protected].