Short Term Orthodontic Service across Warwickshire

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (AGCSU) on behalf of NHS England and NHS Improvement - Midlands (referred to as the Commissioner) would like to inform suitably qualified and experienced providers of an opportunity to deliver an orthodontic service in Warwickshire.

A need has arisen to provide an Orthodontic service to an existing caseload in Warwickshire. The current contract terminates on 31st July 2021 and the new contract is expected to commence on 1st Sep 2021 for a period of 24 Months until 31st Aug 2023, there will be no extensions. The new service will be delivered under an NHS England Personal Dental Service (PDS) Agreement for Completion of Care (Closedown Agreement). There is a requirement that the service is led by a Specialist in Orthodontics.

The new provider must have access to premises which are in the Leamington Spa or Warwick area. This is to ensure services remain accessible to patients who will previously have been attending a dental practice in the centre of Warwick. You will be asked to provide the address of your proposed premises as part of the Qualification Questions when the tender is published. The service will be required to mobilise quickly within the timescales with the necessary registrations in place. This is to ensure minimal disruption to treatment for patients already in care.

There are expected to be no more than 100 patients in active treatment who are at various stages of care including some who have recently had appliances fitted. There are none in supervised retention. This is an unplanned closedown so is more complex than would usually be the case. Normal closedown payment principles will apply in terms of phased payments over 2 years and a flat rate for each patient, but the previous nationally agreed closedown rates are unlikely to apply and a premium will be applied to reflect the following factors:

• Atypical caseload with higher than usual proportion of recent case starts • Ongoing remedial needs for patients due to impact of lockdowns during the pandemic • The restricted capacity currently due to IPC and the likelihood of additional costs associated with premises and staffing in mobilising clinics to accommodate these extra patients

The estimated date of the publication of the contract notice is anticipated to be end of July 2021 with deadline for bidders to respond by mid-August 21.

Additional information: This is a market engagement exercise and does not commit the Commissioners to carry out a procurement process.

Any subsequent procurement will be advertised separately and all organisations wanting to participate will need to respond to the procurement advertisement as and when published.