Health services

Tender description

West Suffolk CCG has reviewed pain services in the context of the wider Health and Care Review which has provided a vision for integrated pain services. Within West Suffolk, local providers have formed an Alliance to deliver acute, community and primary care. The CCG believes the vision for integrated pain services would be best delivered through this Alliance as they are uniquely placed to truly integrate services, secure the identified needs of the population, improve quality and efficiency of services, realise seamless service provision across the pathway and increase service sustainability. To achieve this vision, the intention is to deliver the services through the Alliance by delivery from two organisations working collaboratively under a single contract to deliver seamless community and acute care. The West Suffolk Alliance is operational within the west Suffolk healthcare system formed of the following entities: West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Suffolk GP Federation CIC and Suffolk County Council. The providers listed currently deliver a comprehensive range of services within the localities. The CCG began a process to ascertain whether two of these organisations would be most capable of delivering the vision of an “Integrated Pain Management Service” through joint delivery of a single patient pathway, clinical governance and workforce management arrangements. West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Suffolk GP Federation currently deliver a wide range of pain management services, including a single point of referral; medical interventions; psychological support; holistic therapies; physiotherapy; inpatient pain management, and patient education and support with a strong emphasis on self-care management through shared decision making. This process assessed whether the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Suffolk GP Federation CIC were the most capable providers and therefore uniquely placed to deliver the specifications and vision derived from an integrated service. To demonstrate their ability the organisations were required to evidence that they were uniquely placed to deliver the level of integration across the pain management pathways; willing to work jointly together and with other statutory providers; experienced in multidisciplinary integrated care; able to mobilise at pace and capable of bringing about the innovation required for this service within the allocated budget. The structured dialogue sessions covered a number of areas to allow the CCG to receive this assurance; an overview of the areas covered were as follows: — organisational structure, governance and risk, — clinical governance, clinical operations and clinical risk, — finances and financial operating model, — workforce; information management and technology and patient pathways. At the end of the structured dialogue the CCGs reviewed the progress and documented evidence provided and concluded through evaluation against set criteria that the assurance had been received to evidence the organisations were the most capable providers of the service and presented a unique opportunity for innovation of the services. This service will be contracted through a variation to the community services contract held by West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of the Alliance, for the remaining term of up eight (8) years and six (6) months. The community services contract was awarded for a total of seven (7) plus three (3) years.