Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2020-10-19
Buyer: NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU on behalf of NHS Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 85100000: Health services | 85121200: Specialist medical services | 85323000
Estimated value: 8716900 GBP
Award criteria: Lowest price
EU fund: ESF

Technical requirements: NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) on behalf of the commissioners, NHS Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group are awarding a contract for Neurology Services to the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. This Award Notice is being issued for transparency purposes.
NHS Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group are awarding a contract to the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust for Neurology Services, in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations 2015, Regulation 12, Part 7 — Contracts which establish or implement co-operation between contract authorities.
Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group and Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group wish to award a contract for both acute and community neurology services for registered patients. The service will be based on best practice and will provide appropriate outpatient appointments, access to diagnostics, diagnosis, care planning, inpatient provision, community services, follow up treatment, review, discharge and access to specialist nursing advice and support.
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) have supported Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SATH) in delivering this service for the past 2 years, in which SATH have been unable to independently continue delivering this service. RWT will be required to work collaboratively with existing providers as part of an integrated, evidence-based approach to patient care.
The commissioning intention is to continue the co-operative approach with RWT, under a formal contract structure. Regulation 12, Part 7 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 enables this approach to working as long as 3 tests are met:
1) The contract establishes or implements a co-operation between the participating contracting authorities with the aim of ensuring that public services they have to perform are provided with a view to achieving objectives they have in common;
2) The implementation of that co-operation is governed solely by considerations relating to the public interest; and
3) The participating contracting authorities perform on the open market less than 20 % of the activities concerned by the cooperation.
This service delivery agreement is being formalised in the best interest of the patients within the geographic area for Shropshire. The continuation of the service ensures patients have access at the point of need and still in the county of Shropshire as delivery locations shall remain within the current NHS Estate within Shropshire as agreed between RWT and SATH. If in any circumstance travel is required the impact shall be minimised due to the close locality and regular public transport available to Wolverhampton. RWT are already part of the current Neurology Service patient pathway and have been managing the treatment of existing SATH patients. However, the referral of new patients has been limited resulting in a backlog of patients, the continued support from RWT is essential in expanding this care to all patients. Additional staffing is required to cover the full service therefore, it is important to have the correct governance in place to enable the ongoing co-operation and access to funding.
In September 2018 a PIN Notice and Market Engagement was undertaken for Neurology Services which attracted very little market interest, it is also acknowledged that Neurology Services are high in demand with very limited capacity available on the open market.
The Commissioner is intending to work with RWT for a period of 3 years with the option to continue the relationship for an additional 12 month period, this is reflected in the potential contract value. The annual value is estimated to be GBP 2 179 214 per annum.
These services are light touch regime services for the purpose of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as specified in Schedule 3 of the Regulations ('Regulations'). Accordingly, the contracting authority is only bound by those parts of the Regulations detailed in Chapter 3 Particular Procurement Regimes Section 7.
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) have supported Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SATH) in delivering this service for the past 2 years, in which SATH have been unable to independently continue delivering this service. RWT will be required to work collaboratively with existing providers as part of an integrated, evidence based approach to patient care.
This service delivery agreement is being formalised in the best interest of the patients within the geographic area for Shropshire. The continuation of the service ensures patients have access at the point of need and still in the county of Shropshire as delivery locations shall remain within the current NHS Estate within Shropshire as agreed between RWT and SATH. If in any circumstance travel is required the impact shall be minimised due to the close locality and regular public transport available to Wolverhampton. RWT are already part of the current Neurology Service patient pathway and have been managing the treatment of existing SATH patients. However, the referral of new patients has been limited resulting in a backlog of patients, the continued support from RWT is essential in expanding this care to all patients.
The Commissioning intention is to proceed with a co-operative approach with RWT, through use of Regulation 12, Part 7 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015, which stipulates:


Winner: The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
Award value: 8716900
Number of bids: 1