Health and social work services

Tender description

This notice is placed as a prior information notice (PIN) and relates to a pre-procurement market engagement questionnaire and event/s. NHS England and NHS Improvement South West (the Commissioner) seeks to re-commission two diabetic eye screening programmes (DESP), one for the populations of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Swindon and Wiltshire and one for the population of Dorset. The Commissioner invites expressions of interest (EOI) from suitably qualified and experienced providers to provide the NHS DESP in line with strict national standards and guidelines to eligible patients living and registered in the identified geographies. To register your expression of interest, please register on the eProcurement portal, InTend and submit a completed provider market engagement questionnaire. This notice is placed as a prior information notice (PIN) and relates to a pre-procurement market engagement questionnaire and event/s. NHS England and NHS Improvement South West (the Commissioner) seeks to re-commission a diabetic eye screening programme (DESP) to deliver screening to the eligible populations of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Swindon and Wiltshire (Lot 1). This requirement is due to the current contract expiring. The Commissioner invites expressions of interest (EOI) from suitably qualified and experienced providers to provide the NHS DESP in line with strict national standards and guidelines to eligible patients living and registered in the identified geographies. The eligible population of includes patients over the age of 12 diagnosed with diabetes and registered with or eligible to be registered with a GP, as well as individuals within prisons, secure units and the armed forces. The aim of the DESP is to reduce the risk of sight loss amongst people with diabetes by the prompt identification and effective treatment if necessary of sight threatening diabetic retinopathy. This will be achieved by delivering an evidence-based service that: • identifies the eligible population and ensures effective delivery with maximum coverage; • is safe, effective, high-quality, externally and independently monitored, and quality assured; • leads to earlier detection, appropriate referral, effective treatment and improved outcomes; • is delivered and supported by suitably trained, competent and qualified clinical and non-clinical staff who, where relevant, participate in recognised ongoing continuing medical education (CME), continuous professional development (CPD) and quality assurance (QA) schemes; • has audit embedded in the service; • works effectively with other stakeholders to ensure the care pathway is smooth and efficient. There are three key elements of service delivery, namely: • call/recall for all people with diabetes invited for routine digital screening — this is currently undertaken on an annual basis but screening intervals are likely to extend to 2 years for people at low risk during the contract term in line with national guidance; • digital surveillance where individuals need more frequent screening; • slit lamp bio-microscopy (SLB) for those individuals where normal photography is inappropriate (e.g. those having cataracts). Further information on the DESP is available at: https://www.gov.uk/topic/population-screening-programmes/diabetic-eye The contract is due to commence on 1 April 2022. The contract term is yet to be confirmed. The contract value has not yet been finalised. However, for indicative purposes the current annual contract value for 2020/21, based upon achieving the minimum acceptable 75 % uptake, is GBP 1 400 000. This value is likely to reduce with anticipated national changes to screening frequency for low risk individuals during the contract term but will overtime build back up owing to the growth of people with diabetes. Provisional modelling of impact has been completed but this is subject to final guidance being published. Following the impact of Covid-19, the financial mechanism to be used for the contracts is under consideration, with tariff based, block and cost and volume contract approaches potential options. The services will be commissioned using the national service specification for DESP services. The 2020/2021 national service specification, including schedule 4 — Quality requirements is available within the eProcurement system, InTend. Some local tailoring is likely to be made to these documents for this contract and published as part of the final procurement documentation. This notice is placed as a prior information notice (PIN) and relates to a pre-procurement market engagement questionnaire and event/s. NHS England and NHS Improvement South West (the Commissioner) seeks to re-commission a diabetic eye screening programme (DESP) to deliver screening to the eligible population of Dorset (Lot 2). This requirement is due to the current contract expiring. The Commissioner invites expressions of interest (EOI) from suitably qualified and experienced providers to provide the NHS DESP in line with strict national standards and guidelines to eligible patients living and registered in the identified geographies. The eligible population of includes patients over the age of 12 diagnosed with diabetes and registered with or eligible to be registered with a GP, as well as individuals within prisons, secure units and the armed forces. The aim of the DESP is to reduce the risk of sight loss amongst people with diabetes by the prompt identification and effective treatment if necessary of sight threatening diabetic retinopathy. This will be achieved by delivering an evidence-based service that: • identifies the eligible population and ensures effective delivery with maximum coverage; • is safe, effective, high quality, externally and independently monitored and quality assured; • leads to earlier detection, appropriate referral, effective treatment and improved outcomes; • is delivered and supported by suitably trained, competent and qualified clinical and non-clinical staff who, where relevant, participate in recognised ongoing continuing medical education (CME), continuous professional development (CPD) and quality assurance (QA) schemes; • has audit embedded in the service; • works effectively with other stakeholders to ensure the care pathway is smooth and efficient. There are three key elements of service delivery, namely: • call/recall for all people with diabetes invited for routine digital screening — this is currently undertaken on an annual basis but screening intervals are likely to extend to 2 years for people at low risk during the contract term in line with national guidance • digital surveillance where individuals need more frequent screening; • slit lamp bio-microscopy (SLB) for those individuals where normal photography is inappropriate (e.g. those having cataracts). Further information on the DESP is available at: https://www.gov.uk/topic/population-screening-programmes/diabetic-eye The contract is due to commence on 1 April 2022. The contract term is yet to be confirmed. The contract value has not yet been finalised. However, for indicative purposes the current annual contract value for 2020/21, based upon achieving the minimum acceptable 75 % uptake, is GBP 1 300 000. This value is likely to reduce with anticipated national changes to screening frequency for low risk individuals during the contract term but will overtime build back up owing to the growth of people with diabetes. Provisional modelling of impact has been completed but this is subject to final guidance being published. Following the impact of Covid-19, the financial mechanism to be used for the contracts is under consideration, with tariff based, block and cost and volume contract approaches potential options. The services will be commissioned using the national service specification for DESP services. The 2020/2021 national service specification, including schedule 4 — Quality requirements is available within the eProcurement system, InTend. Some local tailoring is likely to be made to these documents for this contract and published as part of the final procurement documentation.