Supply of Medicines & Controlled Drugs and Pharmacy Supply.

Description

Supply of Medicines/drugs and/or Pharmacy Services to North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS). (Supply within the North East of England). NEAS operates within the NHS as a provider of 999 emergency (blue light) and Patient Transport Services (PTS). Since 2013 the Trust has been successfully delivering NHS 111 services for the region, and has been able to demonstrate how this service can run alongside the provision of the 999 service to provide a seamless access point for patients. The Trust covers an area of almost 3,500 square miles covering the areas of Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham, Darlington and Teesside. It employs approximately 3,000 staff and provides 24 hour emergency, rapid response and healthcare services to a population of more than 2.7 million people. Front line services are delivered from 61 stations across the North East region. As part of our services, NEAS frontline crews require access to medicines and drugs as part of their emergency care/treatment to patients. Supply of the required medicines/drugs and pharmacy services is via an existing contract up to 31st March 2025. The purpose of this PIN notice is to engage with and determine the maturity of the market within the North East region to either provide medicine/drug supply and/or pharmacy services. This will inform NEAS of the potential need to bring the services in-house (with direct bulk medicine/drug supply the remaining requirement from the market) Lot 1: As a general oversight, the main focus of the required service(s) includes: • To supply the trust with filled medicines bags, medicines stock and Controlled Drugs (CDs) • To have a Manufacturer “Specials” (MS) licence which will: - Enable the return of medicines bags back from operational use for re-stocking - Ensure that opened packs of medicines in drug bags can be returned & re-issued to avoid waste - Enable supply of spilt medicines packs (for example single ampoules) in drug bags • To have a Distribution Licence [WDA(H)] to enable supply of medicines to NEAS • To support NEAS with regulatory compliance with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and compliance against Home Office Licensing and Legislation requirements. • To produce monthly management information (MI) on all aspects of the service, including KPI reports. • To purchase medicines at the most cost effective price and ensure robust purchasing processes are in place. The Contractor will manage the maintenance and replenishment of our medicines and drugs and source all necessary stock requirements. Currently, our supply of medicines/drugs to our front line emergency crews is structured as follows: Drug Bags: NEAS has around 140 Emergency response vehicles on the road at any one time and these require 4 drug bags each to be supplied/maintained. Of these 500+ drug bags, they are colour coded to reflect contents: - Blue (respiratory / cardiac) - Yellow (neurological) - Black (pain relief) - Red (for cardiac arrest) NEAS require approximately 75 bags of each colour to be packed and checked by our supplier each week. The drug bags will then be returned to the contractor for re-stocking when they reach minimum stock levels. Further information on the medicine & drug products currently used is available upon request and in response to this PIN notice. NEAS are considering bringing the Pharmacy Services element in-house, with the direct bulk supply of medicines/drugs remaining as the market requirement. To support that decision making process, this PIN request appropriately licenced suppliers to express their interest, outlining their capacity and capability to provide the full pharmacy services and/or supply of medicines/drugs within the North East of England. Should NEAS receive indication that there are sufficient providers able to provide the services within the North East, the intention may be to tender for the services in June '24.