Winter Access Hubs Service for Bromley

The notice relates to the provision of a Winter Access Hubs Service for patients registered with a Bromley GP practice.

The commissioner is seeking a provider capable of delivering a resilient, responsive and integrated same-day primary care service throughout the winter period, supporting both in-hours and out-of-hours demand and operating as a key component of Bromley's winter resilience plan.

Under the contract, the provider will be expected to:

•Deliver approximately 7,000 additional same-day primary care appointments throughout the winter operational period (Dec 26 - Jan/Feb 27).

•Operate a network of accessible hub locations distributed across the four Bromley Integrated Neighbourhood Team footprints.

•Provide predominantly face-to-face consultations delivered by appropriately qualified General Practitioners.

•Accept and manage referrals from General Practice following clinical triage, together with referrals from NHS 111 and Urgent Treatment Centres.

•Ensure all clinically urgent patients are assessed on the same day where appropriate.

•Maintain sufficient resilience, workforce capacity and business continuity arrangements to respond to fluctuations in demand and winter pressures.

•Support appropriate utilisation of community pharmacy, self-care, self-referral pathways and wider primary care services to maximise the effectiveness of the service.

•Utilise EMIS and associated NHS digital systems to facilitate consultation recording, referral management and consultation write-back to registered GP practices.

•Undertake quality assurance, clinical audit and service evaluation activities to support continuous improvement and demonstrate impact on system performanceThe provider must demonstrate:

a) Experience of delivering large-scale same-day primary care services in Bromley.

b) The ability to mobilise and operate services across multiple locations in Bromley.

c) Effective relationships with Bromley General Practice, Primary Care Networks and urgent care partners.

d) Robust clinical governance, safeguarding and information governance arrangements.

e) The capability to work flexibly with commissioners to adjust capacity and service delivery in response to changing patterns of demand

f) Access to Bromley healthcare estate to support provision of the service.

The provider will be expected to work collaboratively with Bromley General Practices, Primary Care Networks, NHS 111, Urgent Treatment Centres, Community Pharmacy providers and other health and care partners to maximise utilisation of the service and support whole-system management of winter pressures.

The commissioner is seeking to achieve, through this procurement, a service that supports neighbourhood-based models of care, delivers rapid access to same-day primary care assessment, improves patient flow across the urgent and emergency care system, and contributes to reducing avoidable demand on General Practice, Urgent Treatment Centres and Emergency Departments during periods of peak winter pressure. The service will be expected to work as an integrated component of Bromley's wider winter resilience arrangements, supporting residents to receive the right care, at the right time, in the most appropriate setting while improving outcomes and delivering value for the local health and care system.

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