Academic Half Day (AHD) Cover Service for Bromley General Practices

The notice relates to the provision of an Academic Half Day (AHD) Cover Service for Bromley General Practices.

The commissioner is seeking a provider capable of delivering a safe, responsive and integrated urgent primary care service during agreed AHD and PLT events, ensuring continuity of patient access whilst supporting general practice workforce education and development.

Under the contract, the provider will be expected to:

•Deliver a GP-led service for Bromley registered patients during AHD (minimum 6) and PLT sessions (by future agreement).

•Accept and manage patient demand received through diverted practice telephony systems, online consultation platforms, NHS 111 referrals and other agreed access routes.

•Ensure all clinically urgent contacts are assessed and managed on the same day.

•Operate a clinically led triage model using consult-and-complete principles and effective risk stratification.

•Maintain capability to provide telephone, digital and face-to-face consultations, together with urgent home visits where clinically required.

•Work collaboratively with Bromley General Practices to implement agreed Standard Operating Procedures for online consultations, call handling, appointment booking and urgent prescription management.

•Support reduction of avoidable demand through effective triage, care navigation, signposting and feedback to practices.

•Provide access arrangements that promote equity, patient safety and positive patient experience.

•Maintain robust safeguarding, information governance, workforce and business continuity arrangements.

•Submit detailed sessional reporting and service intelligence to support commissioner oversight, learning and continuous improvement.

The provider must demonstrate:

• Experience of delivering urgent primary care services at scale.
• Strong links with local General Practice and wider health and care partners.
• The ability to mobilise and maintain an appropriately skilled workforce.
• Capability to ensure access to local GP estate facilities to support patient access to care.
• Effective digital capabilities including management of online consultation systems and modern telephony solutions.
• Robust clinical governance and quality assurance processes.
• Excellent knowledge of local care pathways and services across Bromley and South East London.

The provider will be expected to work as part of Bromley's wider urgent and community care system, including General Practice, Primary Care Networks, NHS 111, community health services, acute providers, adult social care, mental health services, community pharmacy, virtual wards and voluntary sector organisation.

The process being followed is a Most Suitable Provider Process under the Provider Selection Regime 2023.

The contract period for the service will be one year with the option to extend for a further one year. Additional information: Relative Importance of Key Criteria:

The following key criteria were applied in the assessment of the provider:

• Quality and Innovation
• Value
• Integration, Collaboration and Service Sustainability
• Improving Access, Reducing Health Inequalities and Facilitating Choice
• Social Value

Rationale for the Relative Importance of the Key Criteria:

The relative importance of the key criteria reflects the Authority's need to secure a safe, high-quality, and effective service for patients with a provider that is committed to supporting the development of neighbourhood models of healthcare while ensuring value for money under the Provider Selection Regime. The assessment method of all five key criteria aimed to allow the Authority to identify the most suitable provider to achieve the service aims of improving wellbeing, increasing independence, and reducing avoidable reliance on urgent and acute services.

Please note that this notice is linked to an intention to follow the Most Suitable Provider Process which was published on Find a Tender Service on 29th September 2026 (www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/092025-2026 ↗)