YAS 277 2023_24 999 & NHS111 Remote Clinical Support

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) provide the Urgent & Emergency Ambulance Service (999) and the NHS111 service for the Yorkshire & Humber Region. Rising demand, increasing acuity, and the expansion of community urgent pathways and ED alternatives has placed an even greater emphasis on the role of 999 and NHS111 to provide robust remote clinical assessment and navigation at scale. YAS 999 and NHS111 services have historically been distinct, maintaining separate clinical hubs, separate systems and separate resilience arrangements. Both services offer remote triage, clinical assessment and onward navigation for patients with urgent and emergency care needs; aiming to ensure patients get the most appropriate care at the earliest opportunity. During 2024/25 and 2025/26 YAS is undertaking a transformation programme to develop an Integrated Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) across 999 and NHS111. This aims to streamline triage and care navigation processes, provide a more consistent response to patients and make the best use of our clinical resource. Over recent years, YAS services have regularly collaborated with system partners for external support to bolster our ability to offer prompt clinical assessment – including sub contracts, partnership arrangements and service pilots. As the Trust progresses with the development of its Integrated CAS we are seeking to sub-contract an external clinical service partner to provide remote clinical assessment for a proportion of NHS111 callers and low acuity 999 calls (cat 3-5). The scope and focus of the sub-contracted service will change over time, requiring collaboration and flexibility to support the current needs of both services and continue to evolve over time to support the single Integrated CAS. Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) is seeking to engage with potential providers to develop our future approach to sub-contracting additional clinical assessment support for the 999 and NHS111 services in Yorkshire & Humber. YAS intends to procure a sub contracted service to provide telephone clinical assessment and onward navigation for a proportion of lower acuity 999 & 111 calls, aiming to ensure patients get the most appropriate care at the earliest opportunity. The sub-contracted service would be a long-term strategic collaboration with YAS, providing responsive high quality clinical assessment resource and tactical resilience to the 999 and NHS111 services. All calls referred to the service will have first received a non-clinical triage using NHS Pathways or AMPDS, with 999 calls also being screened by a YAS clinical navigator, to ensure that calls are appropriate for transfer and have a high probability of being successfully resolved by a remote clinician.<br/>• The proposed service would commence on 1st April 2025, with an initial contract length of two years (24 months) and an optional extension of one year (12 months).<br/>• This is an intention to award a contract under the competitive process.<br/><br/>• YAS are seeking a single sub-contractor to operate on a Yorkshire and Humber level, managing referral volumes of ca. 70,000 calls per year (approximately 18,000 999 calls & 52,000 NHS111 calls)<br/>• The intended case mix will span a range of lower acuity urgent calls, requiring the sub contracted service to operate a multi-disciplinary model including a combination of General Practitioner, Nursing and/or Allied Health Professional staffing.<br/>• The service would require technical infrastructure consistent with the national Integrated Urgent Care Specification, including call recording, ITK messaging, capability to interrogate the Directory of Services and make onward referrals & direct bookings<br/>• As a strategic collaboration the service will work flexibly with YAS services to adapt service models over time with a shared aim to use the totality of the YAS and sub-contracted resource to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.<br/><br/>This is an existing service and the contract award is to an existing provider. The contract award criteria are specified in the procurement documents. Additional information: This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) Contract Notice. The awarding of this contract is<br/>subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the<br/>avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to<br/>this award.<br/>Bid documents will be shared on the Atamis procurement portal. If not already registered,<br/>please register on Atamis as a supplier here:<br/>https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome<br/>If needed, please access Supplier user guide here:<br/>https://services.atamis.co.uk/docs/Supplier_User_Guide.pdf<br/>Link to Atamis support is:<br/>support-health@atamis.co.uk (Phone 029 2279 0052)