VEAT Notice for GP Out of Hours Service in East Berkshire

East Berkshire CCG are planning to contract with East Berkshire Primary Care Out of Hours Services Ltd (EBOOH) for the provision of GP Out of Hours (OOH) services for the patients registered and non-registered to the East Berkshire geographical area (Bracknell, Ascot, Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead) under a Single Tender Waiver (STW). This service will function as a key element of the existing Thames Valley Integrated Urgent Care service and support the development of 111 First in Frimley, following its launch in November 2020. 111 and primary care are two of the four key points of access to same day care for patients across the Frimley Integrated Care System, which the Out of Hours service is fully integrated within.

The publication of the integrated urgent care services specification in 2017, the Next Steps on the NHS 5 year Forward View and the NHS Long Term Plan set out the requirement for Commissioners to contract for an Integrated Urgent Care service (IUC) to include 111 Services, a clinical assessment service (CAS) and also GP face to face provision both during normal primary care hours 8-6.30pm Monday to Friday and during the GP Out of hours period 6.30pm - 8am weekdays and during the weekend. The main IUC contract and CAS has been provided by South Central Ambulance Service since 2017. The normal GP in-hours element is provided from the local GP Practices. The remaining element of GP Out of Hours services has been commissioned from EBOOH for the above localities and North Hampshire Urgent Care for the Sandhurst Medical Practice.

As part of this integrated service there has been ongoing service development across Commissioners and Providers delivering the IUC service as a whole. East Berkshire OOH has delivered the existing OOH service since April 2006, with the current contract due to expire 31st March 2021. To mitigate the risk of disruption to services and ensure greater alignment with the Thames Valley Integrated Urgent Care Service ("TV IUC") the CCG is intending to award a further contract to the current provider.

The contract will be aligned with the TV IUC contract end date to allow the CCG to review their long term Urgent Care strategy as a whole and will therefore be awarded from 1st April 2021 to 4th September 2024 at a value of £15,948,453. As such, a negotiated procedure without a call for competition will be followed and is believed to be justified under section 32(2) (b) (ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 - 'competition is absent for technical reasons' where no reasonable alternative or substitute exists.

For a full description of the service requirements and other information please see the attached word document.