NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) Provision of Services for Out of Hours GP Support to Devon Community Hospitals (South and West Regions)

Description

NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) seeks to commission a Provision of Services for Out of Hours GP Support to Devon Community Hospitals - South and West Regions. The service will be provided to patients residing as in-patients in the Devon Community Hospitals - South and West Regions. Aim / Purpose of Service To provide urgent (as opposed to emergency or routine) primary care support to Devon's Community Hospitals during the out-of-hours period where it is required, and the patients' needs cannot be appropriately met in the in-hours period. Hospital staff will be able to seek the advice of a clinician, who will arrange for a GP to attend the hospital to undertake a face-to-face assessment if clinically indicated. This is likely to include (but not be limited to): • Patients who have had an acute deterioration and it is not clear or appropriate to directly admit to hospital. • Patients at or nearing end of life who require an urgent medical review A full specification and list of defined requirements and outcomes are available to view once registered on the Atamis e-procurement portal. Further detail on registering on Atamis is provided below. Contract Terms The Initial contract duration will be for 6 months with an optional extension of up to 6 months with services due to commence on the 2nd of December 2023. Financial Envelope There is a set Finance Envelope of £190,000 per annum The Financial envelope is £95,000 for the initial 6 months and then up to a further £95,000 for the up to 6 months extension. The envelope is exclusive of VAT as the service is exempt. Contract. The Commissioner will be contracting for the services using the NHS Standard Clinical Contract (long form) 2023/24 version. The draft Contract can be found within the ITT documents within Atamis and Bidders must carefully study these documents to ensure they are familiar with the obligations on them should they be awarded a Contract. The closing date for submissions is 12 noon on the 24th of October 2023 Atamis: Interested providers will be able to view this notice via the 'Live Opportunities' list on the e-procurement system, Atamis, available on the following link: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome This procurement is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioners. Lot 1: NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) seeks to commission a Provision of Services for Out of Hours GP Support to Devon Community Hospitals - South and West Regions. The service will be provided to patients residing as in-patients in the following Devon Community Hospitals. West Devon Tavistock Hospital, Spring Hill, Tavistock Kingsbridge Hospital, Plymouth Road, Kingsbridge South Devon Brixham Community Hospital, Greenswood Road, Brixham Dawlish Community Hospital, Barton Terrace, Dawlish, Devon Newton Abbot Community Hospital, West Golds Road, Jetty Marsh, Newton Abbot Totnes Community Hospital, Coronation Road, Totnes Aim / Purpose of Service To provide urgent (as opposed to emergency or routine) primary care support to Devon's Community Hospitals during the out-of-hours period where it is required, and the patients' needs cannot be appropriately met in the in-hours period. Hospital staff will be able to seek the advice of a clinician, who will arrange for a GP to attend the hospital to undertake a face-to-face assessment if clinically indicated. This is likely to include (but not be limited to): • Patients who have had an acute deterioration and it is not clear or appropriate to directly admit to hospital. • Patients at or nearing end of life who require an urgent medical review. Specific Deliverables During the out of hours period, the service will provide Devon's community hospitals with access to: • Remote clinical assessment • Prescribing where appropriate • Face-to-face consultation where absolutely required. Service Description / pathway Call Handling and Remote Clinical Assessment The Provider will aim to answer all calls to the service within 60 seconds or, as a minimum, to ensure the first call made from the Community Hospital is answered. Should Community Hospital staff require GP support during the out of hours period (as defined in the section entitled "Hours of Operation"), they will: • Ring the agreed single point of access contact number for the service provider. • Speak to a Service Advisor who will: • Take demographics. • Advise the caller that a clinician will call them back. • The clinician will aim to return the call within 30 minutes: • The clinician will provide telephone triage. The clinician will arrange a visit where and when clinically necessary. Staff within the Out of Hours Community Hospital Service should be made aware of any Treatment Escalation Plan including: • Resuscitation status • Medications The call answering and remote clinical assessment elements of the service will be delivered from agreed sites, unless otherwise agreed with the Commissioner. Any change to be agreed by provider and commissioner in writing in advance of change on either a temporary or permanent basis. Remote clinical assessment may also occur from alternative locations at the discretion of the clinician in question. Face-to-Face Where the patient requires a face-to-face assessment following telephone triage, the provider (clinician) will coordinate a visit with the Community Hospital to ensure efficient use of clinical resource. A GP will not be dispatched to undertake tasks that can be undertaken by an appropriately trained nurse, for example: • Catheters • Cannulas • Dressings • Syringe drivers (unless medication review is required and cannot be done remotely) • Verification of death • Phlebotomy In the event there is a request to complete a nursing task, this should be escalated to the clinical site practitioner or equivalent at the community hospital site. Similarly, a GP will not be dispatched for a clinical need that can be appropriately addressed during the in hours period, or for administrative tasks which should have been completed during working hours such as re-writing drug charts, completing TEP forms, clerking new admissions or routine reviews. Wherever possible, clinicians attending patients within a community hospital setting will record details of the visit and any action taken directly on the local patient recording system. Transfer of Care Where a call is received during the out of hours period the Provider will complete all aspects of the call handling and remote clinical assessment for the patient regardless of whether handling the case continues into the in hours period. Where a case received out of hours requires an in hours visit, the Provider is responsible for ensuring the safe handover of the patient to the most appropriate service or the care of the community hospital in which they are resident. Training Clinicians to be appropriately trained in the clinical system used by the relevant Trust. Remuneration The provider will be paid a block contract to provide the entire service as detailed in the specification, including all call answering, clinician call backs and face to face call out visits. Hours of Operation The hours of the service will be as follows: • Weekday Evening/Overnight On-Call Shift: 18:00 to 08:00 • Weekend Saturday On-Call Shift: 08:00 to 08:00 • Weekend Sunday On-Call Shift: 08:00 to 08:00 • Bank Holiday On-Call Shift: 08:00 to 08:00 Reporting Requirements The service will be required to report on the following measures on a monthly basis: • Telephone answering statistics. • The Clinical Assessment Service • Face to Face Appointments • Rota Fill In the event that the Provider is, for a sustained period(s), unable to provide adequate shift fill for the service this will trigger a conversation between Commissioner and Provider. Commissioners reserve the right to withhold a proportion of the remuneration (up to 10% of the block contract value) in the event that inadequate rota fill persists. A first view of all data identified above, must be provided to the Commissioner, by the Provider no later than six weeks following the service commencement date. The Provider will provide on a one off or irregular basis, such information as reasonably requested by the commissioner to undertake a review of future provision. This is likely to be in the form of a raw extract of pseudonymized case level data. A full specification and list of defined requirements and outcomes are available to view once registered on the Atamis e-procurement portal. Further detail on registering on Atamis is provided below. Contract Terms The Initial contract duration will be for 6 months with an optional extension of up to 6 months with services due to commence on the 2nd of December 2023. Financial Envelope There is a set Finance Envelope of £190,000 per annum. The Financial envelope is £95,000 for the initial 6 months and then up to a further £95,000 for the up to 6 months extension. The envelope is exclusive of VAT as the service is exempt. Contract. The Commissioner will be contracting for the services using the NHS Standard Clinical Contract (long form) 2023/24 version. The draft Contract can be found within the ITT documents within Atamis and Bidders must carefully study these documents to ensure they are familiar with the obligations on them should they be awarded a Contract. The closing date for submissions is 12 noon on the 24th of October 2023 Atamis: Interested providers will be able to view this notice via the 'Live Opportunities' list on the e-procurement system, Atamis, available on the following link: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome Please search for the project "NHS Devon ICB Out of Hours GP Support to Devon Community Hospitals" or contract reference C216033 Once you have found the opportunity (via the search function, using the title or reference number), to gain full access to the bid documentation, you will need to click on 'Register interest' - this will take you to the log-in page. If you are not already registered on the system, you will need to do so before gaining full access to the documentation and to be able to submit a bid. This processed is being managed by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner(s). Additional information: The services 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 are instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).