Health services

Tender description

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands CSU on behalf of NHS England Highly Specialised Services is inviting suitably qualified and experienced providers to deliver Open Fetal Surgery to treat fetuses with Open Spina Bifida. Objectives of the Procurement. The key objectives of the Procurement are to commission the Service for open fetal surgery for spina bifida which will provide: diagnosis including fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); open fetal surgery; and adult HDU and ante natal ward care for women carrying a fetus with congenital open spina bifida. This will be, provided that the woman and her fetus meet the criteria. NHS England will be seeking to appoint 2 Fetal Surgery Centres (FSC’s), ideally from providers able to offer the service closer to patients’ homes, thereby reducing the travel times for women carrying a fetus suspected of having open spina bifida. Further detail are provided in Document 1 — ITT Process Overview and Document 3 — Service specification. Scope of services: The Service(s) will be required to meet the following needs: — the population covered is all women carrying a fetus which is suspected of having open spina bifida who meet the access criteria and who are defined as the commissioning responsibility of NHS England, — approximately 700 women per year in the UK have an ultrasound scan performed in the first half of pregnancy that results in a diagnosis of the fetus having a major form of open spina bifida (myelomeningocoele or myeloschisis), which is where the spinal column and cord are not properly formed, — babies born with this condition are often unable to walk, incontinent of urine and faeces, may develop hydrocephalus due to incomplete closure of the spinal canal and may require a series of operations to drain fluid from the brain later in life (shunt placement). Many women in the UK opt for a termination of pregnancy on the basis of medical grounds, although some choose to continue with the pregnancy. One hundred babies are born in England each calendar year with spina bifida, not all of whom would meet the NHS England access criteria for open fetal surgery. Data from current European Open Fetal Surgery Centres suggests that only 20 % of women with an affected fetus choose to undergo open fetal surgery, meaning that these centres might operate on around 10 to 20 women per year from across the UK, including up to 10 from England. Scope of services: The Service(s) will be required to meet the following needs: — the population covered is all women carrying a fetus which is suspected of having open spina bifida who meet the access criteria and who are defined as the commissioning responsibility of NHS England, — approximately 700 women per year in the UK have an ultrasound scan performed in the first half of pregnancy that results in a diagnosis of the fetus having a major form of open spina bifida (myelomeningocoele or myeloschisis), which is where the spinal column and cord are not properly formed, — babies born with this condition are often unable to walk, incontinent of urine and faeces, may develop hydrocephalus due to incomplete closure of the spinal canal and may require a series of operations to drain fluid from the brain later in life (shunt placement). Many women in the UK opt for a termination of pregnancy on the basis of medical grounds, although some choose to continue with the pregnancy. One hundred babies are born in England each calendar year with spina bifida, not all of whom would meet the NHS England access criteria for open fetal surgery. Data from current European Open Fetal Surgery Centres suggests that only 20 % of women with an affected fetus choose to undergo open fetal surgery, meaning that these centres might operate on around 10 to 20 women per year from across the UK, including up to 10 from England.