Farrier House GP Surgery Worcestershire

The CCG is looking to award a contract for GP Services Farrier House Surgery, based in Worcester to SW Healthcare, which is a Federation of GP Surgeries based in Worcestershire. The contract service includes 1) Provision of full GMS Services, 2) Achievement of additional Key performance indicators in the following areas: Access, Patient Engagement, Childhood Vaccinations and Immunisations, Cytology and Flu Vaccinations, Homeless and Vulnerable Housed Service. The current registered population for Farrier House Surgery includes a large proportion of university students.

It is seeking to do a Direct Award under Regulation 32 (b) (ii) where competition is unlikely to be financially viable and changing provider at this crucial time in post-pandemic recovery period would be disruptive to patient pathways and not in the patients' interests.

The CCG is therefore looking to Directly award a contract to SW Healthcare for a period of Five years with an option to extend for a period of 24 months which constitutes an estimated contract value of around £4,424,000. The anticipated go-live date of this contract will be from 1st April 2022. This Direct Award follows on from the current contract which was awarded in April 2021 to SW Healthcare, continuing on from the original competitive procurement awarded in 2015.

Under the NHS Long Term Plan Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are working towards a model of more integrated care within Primary Care alongside PCN and GP organisations. This model is still being developed in Herefordshire & Worcestershire. In the light of the current Covid 19 emergency situation, the focus of work is centred around post pandemic recovery. It would be unduly disruptive to the continuity of services for patients and cause substantial duplication of costs for the CCG to undertake a further procurement process at this point in time. It has become necessary therefore for the CCG, under Regulation 32 (b) (ii) to directly award a contract to SW Healthcare to ensure continuity and integrity of pathways during the next few years in post-pandemic recovery and during a period of immense change due to the development of new integrated pathways within the GP and PCN arena in Primary Care. Regulation 32 (b) (ii) states..>"where competition is absent for technical reasons..."The CCG does not feel that competition for this service exists at a viable financial level. The Fall-out from the pandemic emergency has now changed to post pandemic recovery efforts and this requires a focus on crucial resources to regain pre-pandemic levels of service and care. To change provider and pathways at this point would not be in the patients' interests.

Additional information: Light Touch Regime' services: This procurement is for clinical 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.

As the CCG 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 to this procurement.