Health and social work services

Tender description

NHS Aylesbury and Chiltern CCGs sought to commission an interim Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Service following early notice being received on an existing contract from the incumbent provider for the area of Buckinghamshire. Due to the timeframes required it was determined that a provider needed to be appointed urgently to mobilise the services to manage continuity of services for patients. The scope of the services includes: 1. Clinical Assessment Service NHS Continuing Healthcare (Adults) 2. Continuing Care (Children and Young People ) 3. S117 client clinical assessment and on-going review (Brokerage and contracting provided by BCC) 4. Brokerage and contracting. 5. Complex case reviews 6. Funded Nursing Care (FNC) 7. Invoice verification 8. Returns to NHSE etc. 9. Personal Health Budgets (PHBs) for CHC clients Oxford Health Foundation Trust (OHFT) has been identified to provide the interim services for a period of 10 months. The value of the interim services is 1 491 015 GBP. NHS Aylesbury and Chiltern CCGs sought to commission an interim Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Service following early notice being received on an existing contract from the incumbent provider for the area of Buckinghamshire. Due to the timeframes required it was determined that an interim provider needed to be appointed urgently to mobilise the services. This was to guarantee continuity of services for patients (adults, children and young people) across the Buckinghamshire area. The scope of the services includes: 1. Clinical Assessment Service NHS Continuing Healthcare (Adults), 2. Continuing Care (Children and Young People), 3. S117 client clinical assessment and on-going review (Brokerage and contracting provided by BCC), 4. Brokerage and contracting, 5. Complex case reviews, 6. Funded Nursing Care (FNC), 7. Invoice verification, 8. Returns to NHSE etc., 9. Personal Health Budgets (PHBs) for CHC clients. An options appraisal identified that the optimum long term solution for Buckinghamshire will be to draw on the strengths from across the commissioners Accountable Care System (ACS), and this work will be undertaken in due course. This includes expertise in CHC from Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (OHFT) which already delivers CHC services to the population of Oxfordshire, expert knowledge of local hospital and community services and discharge pathways and an ability to recruit and retain nursing staff from Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (BHT); combined with knowledge of the local care home and domiciliary care market and procurement expertise and capacity available in Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC). This will simplify and speed up CHC processes and so improve the quality of the experience for patients. Given these strong existing relationships, knowledge and experience, OHFT were identified as the only reasonable option for delivering the urgent step in service in a limited period of time. This approach enables integration of local services to release significant benefits to patients and is also expected to improve the use of public funding. Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (OHFT) has therefore been identified to provide the interim services for a period of 10 months from the 1.12.2017 to the 30.9.2018. The value of the interim services is 1 491 015 GBP. This decision has been determined as Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is the only provider identified that is capable of supplying the interim services required for the commissioner within the imposed timeframe. A Negotiated procedure without a call for competition has been followed and justified under regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) ‘competition is absent for technical reasons’ has been applied where no reasonable alternative or substitute exists.