II.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS code:

UK

II.2.4) Description of the procurement

Provision of urgent treatment service – for the boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich

Bexley and Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Groups (BG CCGs) wish to commission Urgent Treatment Centre services (UTCs) and an out-of-hours home visiting service (OOHHV) as part of a wider alliance of providers for urgent and emergency care. All services will be commissioned under a single contract. The BG CCGs' vision for their residents are GP led multi-disciplinary services that effectively prevent avoidable ED attendances and ensure that patients are treated in the most appropriate setting, according to their clinical and well-being needs, making use of the latest digital opportunities.

Bexley and Greenwich CCGs' wish is to provide a system wide approach to healthcare of which urgent and emergency care is an important component. The urgent treatment service provider will be expected to work with system partners in order to provide right care, right time and right place. There needs to be a particularly strong emphasis on supporting and working collaboratively primary care and with acute providers within the emergency department setting. Our intention is to have an urgent treatment service provider who is an integral active partner of an urgent and emergency care alliance and is truly integrated with the wider local health and social care system working together to support patient care and financial stability of the system. It will be expected that over the course of the contract the provider will become an integral member under a wider alliance agreement.

There will be 3 local urgent treatment centres across the 2 boroughs:

— 1 co-located at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Woolwich (QEH),

— 1 standalone unit in North Bexley at Erith and District Hospital (EDH), and

— 1 standalone at Queen Mary’s Hospital Sidcup (QMS).

Within Bexley and Greenwich the vision is to create an urgent and emergency care system (1 system multiple facilities) that is capable of delivering equitable access to the right care first time for patients, through an integrated model with services provided along robust pathways 24/7.

This is an opportunity for a genuine integrated urgent and emergency (UEC) care service, aligning NHS 111, London Ambulance Service (LAS), intermediate care services, community services, general practice, GP extended hours hubs, social care, mental health care and hospital services. At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich) site we expect a seamless integrated service co-located with the emergency department. Our population across North Bexley is predicted to see significant growth, particularly within the working age population, in addition to a challenging physical site footprint. Both will require innovative ways of working and we would want to see investment in digital technology to help future proof and achieve our ambition.

The Greenwich UTC based at the QEH will be open 24 hours a day/7 days a week. One stand-alone UTC will be open 24 hrs a day/7 days a week (Queen Mary’s Hospital) and the other will be open 14 hrs a day/7 days a week (Erith and District Hospital). The UTC will include open access patients and may include scheduled or appointed patients (e.g. via NHS 111) with urgent need. It is expected that the urgent treatment centre model will be live at all 3 sites and must be operational by 1.10.2020.

The maximum contract term will be 7 years (5 years + 2 years optional extension), we anticipate that the value of the contract over a 56-year contract period will be between 42 216 000 GBP-43 866 000 GBP. The CCGs are seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified and experienced healthcare providers who can provide demonstrable evidence of a record of accomplishment in delivering high quality and effective urgent treatment services.

Any expenditure, work or effort undertaken prior to contract award is accordingly a matter solely for the commercial judgment of potential service providers. In such circumstances and in any event, the CCGs or its advisors shall not be liable for any costs or loss of expenses whatsoever incurred by the respondent and company, agent, subsidiary or organisation may have contributed to any response submitted to this notice. The ITT reference for this tender is PRJ863. All completed bids must be submitted by 12.00 noon on 20.3.2020. The procurement process is facilitated entirely online via the stated eProcurement portal ProContract (the Portal). Interested bidders must access the ITT documentation via the link provided and submit an ITT response via the online questionnaires on the eTendering portal ‘ProContract’ before the submission deadline. See the procurement documentation for more details. The ITT can be found at https://procontract.due-north.com/Advert?advertId=59f73835-3547-ea11-80ff-005056b64545 The services in the scope of this procurement are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (‘the Regulations’) which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but is instead governed by the ‘Light Touch Regime’ contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77). BG CCGs will adopt the open procedure as a template for this procurement. The tendering process will be conducted in accordance with the requirements and flexibilities provided by Regulations 74 to 76 of the Regulations. BG CCGs will run a transparent tender process, treating all bidders equally. For the avoidance of doubt, BG CCGs will not be bound by the Regulations or the treaty on the functioning of the European Union or any other regulations or legislation except for the specific parts or circumstances that apply to the procurement of services such as this. Neither the inclusion of a bidder selection stage, nor the use of any language or terms found in the Regulations, nor the description of the procedure voluntarily adopted by BG CCGs nor any other indication, shall be taken to mean that BG CCGs intends to hold itself bound by the Regulations, save those applicable to services coming within the scope of such as this.

II.2.6) Estimated value

Value excluding VAT: 43 866 000.00  GBP

II.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system

Duration in months: 84

II.2.14) Additional information

The maximum contract term will be 7 years (5 years + 2 years optional extension), we anticipate that the value of the contract over a 5-year contract period will be between 42 216 000 GBP-43 866 000 GBP.