PROVISION OF PATIENT TRANSPORT SERVICES (PTS) FOR THE LEICESTERSHIRE INTEGRATED BOARD (ICB)

NHS Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) was seeking to commission a provider or providers to deliver their Patient Transport Services (PTS), to include Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS). The contract currently operating is due to expire on the 30th of June 2024.

The ICB wished to receive responses to the Invitation to Tenders (ITTs) from suitably qualified and experienced Providers with the necessary skill and experience (or a demonstrable ability to provide the skill and experience) to provide the range of services required.

The ICB has re-designed the way Patient Transport Services are specified in Leicestershire. They were looking for stand-alone services for specific cohorts of patients which have varying needs. To that end the re-procurement was split into 3 lots so 3 separate contracts could be awarded, however, bidders had the opportunity to bid for all of the lots or any combination of lots. For the avoidance of doubt each bid was scored on their individual merit. Therefore, it was possible that contracts could have been issued to a single provider.

The lots were split as follows: Lot 1 Dedicated Renal Dialysis The Provider is responsible for delivering a dedicated renal dialysis transport provision to all patients who require Dialysis & nocturnal Dialysis and are registered to an LLR GP. Lot 2 TRIPPS This service will provide High Dependency/Blue Light, Bariatric and End of Life out of University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) Emergency Departments (ED) and LLR Healthcare Settings to their destination. Lot 3 NEPTS The service will provide transport, where a medical condition means that a patient would struggle to safely attend their treatment independently, to LLR registered patients. This will include transport to and from outpatient appointments, discharges, admissions, non-High Dependency transfers, Community Mental Health appointments and therapy groups, including on the day activity and planned.

08/11/2022 - Amendment were made as follows: During the refresh data for Lots 1 and 3 the ICB requested a mini audit of the High Dependency activity that is expected to sit within Lot 2 - TRIPPS. The outcome of this demonstrated a shift in acuity of patients since the original data was published.

These changes have been reflected within the financial envelope thresholds and it had an impact of: Lot 2 - increase of £775,951 over years 1-5 over years 1-5 with the total impact combined for all lots over years 1-5 being an increase of £593,257 for the lower limit cost threshold and an increase of £775,591 for the upper limit cost threshold. For more information, bidders could consult revised Annexes 01 and 05 of the tender documentation.

Additional information: Each contract was to be awarded for a term of five (5) years from the Service start date with the possibility of extending the term for up to another 5 years beyond the initial contracted term at the ICB's discretion. The ICB has set higher and lower budgetary thresholds for each lot, as follows: Full cost envelope (Higher Limit) £92,405,333

Full cost envelope (Lower Limit) £68,041,353

Any bid(s) received that were over or below the set thresholds were to be eliminated from the procurement.

These services are being treated as Schedule 3 services (healthcare services) and as such are being procured using the Light Touch Regime under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. An open type single stage procedure is being used which is proportionate to the complexity and value of these services.

The invitation to tender (ITT) was available from 23rd September 2022 on the ML CSU Bravo portal (see below) and had a deadline for submissions of 12:00 noon on 12th December 2022. Bidder clarifications could be submitted to the ICB (via the ML CSU Bravo portal only) during the procurement process between the 7th October and 17:00 25th November 2022.

Upon receipt of tenders, after the bid closure date had passed, and evaluation had commenced, an issue arose on the 15th of December 2022 by the finance evaluator that caused the ICB to reconsider their scoring methodology. The issue was that the pass/fail criteria in the financial stability ratios were found to be too stringent, given that provider accounts during the Covid period reflected atypical financial flows. After taking legal advice, the ICB decided to reopen the procurement on the 03rd of January 2023 for a further 8 weeks, with a revised scoring criteria that disapplied four of the original financial stability ratios. Reopening the tender ensured equal treatment to all providers, allowing any provider to submit a bid based on the new financial stability ratios, even if they may have declined to bid based on the original stability ratios. New bidders were then able to submit completed bids between 03rd of January and 02nd of March 2023; for those bidders who had submitted under the initial methodology, they also had the opportunity to review and resubmit their bids in the same timeline.