Pathology services

Tender description

NHS Brent CCG, NHS Harrow CCG and London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWUHT) are considering their future Commissioning Strategies for the Provision of Direct Access Pathology Services. NHS Brent CCG, NHS Harrow CCG and LNWUHT will be looking for a provider to deliver an end to end Direct Access Pathology Service. The specific outcomes of the service are: — to provide a high quality and clinically effective 24 hour service (to include, amongst others, blood transfusion, haematology and coagulation, clinical biochemistry, microbiology, virology, serology, immunology, andrology, PoCT support, etc) for both urgent requests and non-urgent requests from GP Practices and the Trust. The service provided will be UKAS accredited to ISO 15189 (or any replacement accreditation system) across all the Services provided, — Cytology and Histopathology (excluding mortuary, post mortem services and cervical screening) are not required to be 24 hours services but are within scope. NHS Brent CCG, NHS Harrow CCG and LNWUHT are considering their future Commissioning Strategies for the Provision of Direct Access Pathology Services. We will be looking for a provider to deliver an end to end Direct Access Pathology Service. The specific outcomes of the service are: Scope We are looking for a single provider who will need to deliver the following requirements: — provision of a wide range of tests appropriate to primary care and secondary care within agreed turnaround times, —— Provision and maintenance of equipment and estate optimised for high volume centralised and low volume local acute testing i.e. hub and spoke; —— Consumables i.e. blood tubes, and associated packaging etc. for GP practices must be supplied when ordered. — UKAS accreditation (or any replacement accreditation system) across all services provided — transport of samples from requesting locations to testing locations including GP practices and lab to lab, maintaining sample integrity and validity of results throughout the journey, — quality reporting format together with appropriate governance processes for the management of breaches and incidents, — ability to link in with the NWL Sector ICE system for ordering and reporting tests, — differential pricing structures for Acute Trust and CCGs. —— Support and implement demand management initiatives as required Current Pathology Position Currently NHS Brent CCG, NHS Harrow CCG and LNWUHT outsources pathology testing to a single provider that performs circa 11m unique tests per annum, of this 3,5m tests are performed by GP Practices. The remaining 7.5m tests are performed by LNWUHT, with circa 2,5m of these being urgent hospital related i.e. acute wards, A and E or surgical pathology tests. Across the geographical landscape there are 89 GP Practices, with a registered population of 680 000. However the LNWUHT also caters for neighbouring London boroughs and therefore caters to a wider patient cohort of over 900 000. These figures are anticipated to grow by circa 4,4 % by the year 2025. The laboratories at Northwick Park include Clinical Biochemistry, Microbiology, Haematology, Blood Transfusion, and Cellular Pathology (which includes Histology and Cytology). The Central Middlesex laboratory provides Clinical Biochemistry (core repertoire of tests), Haematology and Blood Transfusion services to CMH inpatients and outpatients. In addition, CMH houses the Regional Neonatal Haemoglobinopathy laboratory. Pathology services for Ealing Hospital are provided by a rapid response facility that will process clinically urgent specimens specific to Ealing Hospital. Ealing pathology service provides Clinical Biochemistry, Haematology and Blood Transfusion Services. Cellular Pathology laboratory service at Ealing includes cut ups including frozen section production and reporting of all Histology specimens. Immunology services for LNWUHT are provided by the current pathology service provider off-site. LNWUHT currently has a full range of hotel services, including waste management. This may be, in some part, reviewed to be included in the future procurement. It should be noted that any future service provided is likely to be subject to Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations (TUPE) implications. The exact figure for the incumbent provider and trust employees will be shared at Invitation to Tender stage, should the commissioning authorities decide to proceed. What we are looking for? NHS Brent CCG, NHS Harrow CCG and LNWUHT are using this opportunity to engage with providers to establish current market provisions, in order to: — establish the availability and interest of providers, — understand how the transition process from the incumbent provider to a new contract could be managed, — refine its draft service specification, — identify alternative/innovative options and opportunities, — understand any social, economic and sustainability gains, — improve outcomes for primary/secondary care.