Minor Illness Services

We are seeking Expressions of Interest for the delivery of Minor Illness Services into the Emergency Departments at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. It is a strict requirement that the services are able to be ready and deployed by 1st November 2023 in order to respond to winter pressures. The intention is to direct award a contract for 1 year while a wider procurement exercise is prepared for a longer contract. Please read carefully the scope and requirements, including consideration of the deployment date and submit EOIs by email to thomas.bradley1@nhs.net. Deadline for EOIs is midday, Tuesday, 22nd August, 2023. Following this we will be in touch regarding proposals within 3 working days. <br/><br/>Scope of Contract<br/><br/>Population Served <br/>Minor illness service will support the achievement of the four hour standard, a key national driver as well as ensuring that patients will receive the care that is appropriate to their needs. The ambition is the minor illness service will start to influence patient behaviour regards where they present when they feel unwell. <br/>In Leeds, during 2022/23 in excess of 230,000 people attended Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust’s (LTHT) Emergency Departments (ED).<br/>Co-located GP service within both ED departments in 2022/23 at LTHT had seen and discharged approximately 9% on an average of patients who accessed the emergency departments. These are the group of patients who could have been dealt in primary care setting in Leeds. <br/>Data from previous years along with national mandate supports both the case for commissioning minor illness service at the Emergency Departments as well as winter resilience cross the system.<br/>The service is expected to see all patient streamed to the MIS by OMG streamer regardless of demographics including registered GP practices.<br/><br/><br/>Service aims and desired Outcomes<br/>The provider will be required to deliver a minor illness service to all patients streamed by the minor illness team streamer. The streamer will be provided by One MediCare Ltd as part of this contract.<br/>The provider will be expected to work closely with Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust taking a multi-disciplinary and holistic approach in patient care. <br/>The objectives of the service are to:<br/>• Deliver a high quality, safe and appropriate care to patients<br/>• See patients who (through a streaming process) have been identified as their need being appropriate to be seen by the minor illness service<br/>• Support LTHT to improve performance of the 4 hours standard<br/>• Protect ED to see more clinically appropriate patients<br/>• See all patients within 4 hours<br/>• Educate and signpost patients to alternative services, where appropriate<br/>• Provide commissioners with intelligence to inform longer term strategic direction for urgent care services<br/><br/><br/>Service description and location(s) from which it will be delivered<br/>The minor illness service needs to be in place in order to provide additional capacity to support the St James’ (SJUH) and Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) EDs. The subcontractor will provide a minor illness team which is able to provide a clinical service appropriate for the level of activity that is predicted. <br/>The service will have a sustainable staffing model and the clinical team should be experienced at providing unscheduled care. The clinical team are also expected to have a good understanding and knowledge of local services across Leeds.<br/>The service should be a self-contained service, which does not have a patient list of its own and services only the ED (i.e. it does not have its own front door facility for patient to choose to walk-in there).<br/>The service needs to be provided on both sites at LTHT, but separated and discrete from the main ED. For groups of patients where the minor illness team needs to refer to diagnostics or an in-patient team, then these patients should be referred into the hospital teams via the same route as any other primary care clinician in Leeds, which should follow locally agreed protocols.<br/>Patient education must be included in any patient interaction be evidenced by the service to ensure patients are informed of alternative services that would have best met their need. <br/>The 4 hour clock starts once the patient has been booked into minor illness service system following streaming. The clock stops when the patient has completed their consultation with the minor illness team. The minor illness team must enter the clock stop onto both ED and minor illness systems. <br/><br/>SJUH ED full requirement:<br/>• 1 Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) (trained in initial assessment) and 1 GP<br/>LGI ED full requirement:<br/>• 3 x ACPs to see & treat patients (at least 1 of the ACP must be trained in seeing paediatrics)<br/>• 1 x B5 registered nurse<br/>• 1 x ACP (trained to stream including paediatrics)<br/>Minimum service requirement:<br/>• Provider has to staff LGI with a minimum of 2 x ACPs to see & treat, 1 x B5 registered nurse and 1 x ACP to stream.<br/>• SJUH ED will require 1 x ACP (trained in initial assessment) and 1 x GP<br/>• The service will be in operation at both sites SJUH and LGI as follows:<br/> SJUH 8 am to 9pm<br/> LGI 8 am to 10 pm<br/>Working collaboratively with provider a review of workforce model will be carried out quarterly working against the service need and KPIs agreed.