London Region Adult Critical Care Patient Transfer Service

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (AGCSU), on behalf of NHS England, London Region (referred to as the Commissioner), is undertaking a market engagement exercise to understand the current and future capacity and capability of the providers and potential providers to deliver a Specialised Adult Critical Care Patient Transfer service (ACCTS) for London region. Interested parties are encouraged to register their interest and participate in the market questionnaire which will provide feedback to commissioners. The key objective of the anticipated procurement is to select a Lead Provider responsible for establishing, delivering and maintaining a regional ACCTS for London. The service would provide coordination, triage, decision-support and transfer of critically ill patients between hospitals for escalation to specialist care, repatriation and capacity reasons. It is primarily focused on intra region transfers but must be capable of delivering inter regional transfers and have the ability to surge capacity when the Adult Critical Care (ACC) service is under pressure. By commissioning a regional ACCTS for London, the Commissioner would like to attain the following: • Standardised clinical care and safety for all patients, • Improved and consistent patient experience, • Improved equity in access for all patients across the region • Improved activation times as a result of dedicated ambulance resources, • Collaborative working arrangements between all London ICS’s and the NHS ambulance provider • Improved data reporting and monitoring systems throughout the whole patient journey that are utilised to continuously evaluate and improve service delivery • Improved governance framework and processes for the entire service It is anticipated that the Lead Provider would hold overall accountability for the regional ACCTS and contract but would work closely with their identified partners across London to align service delivery with service and population requirements; understand variation and local population needs in each of the five London ICS; and co-ordinate consistent, high-quality patient care across London. The Commissioners therefore actively encourage partnership applications that adopt a collaborative approach in working with key partners across London. This notice is to advise prospective providers in the market of the commissioner’s intention to commission this service and to provide an opportunity to engage with and participate in a market engagement questionnaire. The commissioner seeks to understand from the market what might be the most attractive and feasible commissioning approach for an effective, efficient and high-quality pan-London delivery model that provides equity of access and outcomes for the population it serves. The outcome of this market engagement will help inform commissioners of the current and future capacity and capability of the market and will be considered with other evidence to inform the commissioning approach. NHS England (London Region) is the contracting and commissioning authority for this service and wishes to commission centres in London region as part of a collaborative pan-London network arrangement. The questionnaire is available through the EU Supply portal: https://uk.eu-supply.com/login.asp?B=agcsu There will also be an opportunity to attend a market engagement event via Microsoft Teams at 1pm on Friday 7th October 2022. If you would like to participate in this event, please email anna.salt@nhs.net by 5pm on Thursday 6th October 2022. All slides and questions and responses will be made available to all bidders following the event. The reference is 59135 and the closing date for submission of the completed questionnaire will be: 12pm midday on Thursday 18th October 2022.