Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2019-03-05
Buyer: NHS West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 85100000: Health services
Estimated value: 6701000 GBP
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: West Suffolk CCG has reviewed pain services in the context of the wider Health and Care Review which has provided a vision for integrated pain services. Within West Suffolk, local providers have formed an Alliance to deliver acute, community and primary care. The CCG believes the vision for integrated pain services would be best delivered through this Alliance as they are uniquely placed to truly integrate services, secure the identified needs of the population, improve quality and efficiency of services, realise seamless service provision across the pathway and increase service sustainability. To achieve this vision, the intention is to deliver the services through the Alliance by delivery from two organisations working collaboratively under a single contract to deliver seamless community and acute care.
The West Suffolk Alliance is operational within the west Suffolk healthcare system formed of the following entities: West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Suffolk GP Federation CIC and Suffolk County Council.
The providers listed currently deliver a comprehensive range of services within the localities. The CCG began a process to ascertain whether two of these organisations would be most capable of delivering the vision of an “Integrated Pain Management Service” through joint delivery of a single patient pathway, clinical governance and workforce management arrangements.
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Suffolk GP Federation currently deliver a wide range of pain management services, including a single point of referral; medical interventions; psychological support; holistic therapies; physiotherapy; inpatient pain management, and patient education and support with a strong emphasis on self-care management through shared decision making.
This process assessed whether the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Suffolk GP Federation CIC were the most capable providers and therefore uniquely placed to deliver the specifications and vision derived from an integrated service.
To demonstrate their ability the organisations were required to evidence that they were uniquely placed to deliver the level of integration across the pain management pathways; willing to work jointly together and with other statutory providers; experienced in multidisciplinary integrated care; able to mobilise at pace and capable of bringing about the innovation required for this service within the allocated budget.
The structured dialogue sessions covered a number of areas to allow the CCG to receive this assurance; an overview of the areas covered were as follows:
At the end of the structured dialogue the CCGs reviewed the progress and documented evidence provided and concluded through evaluation against set criteria that the assurance had been received to evidence the organisations were the most capable providers of the service and presented a unique opportunity for innovation of the services.
This service will be contracted through a variation to the community services contract held by West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of the Alliance, for the remaining term of up eight (8) years and six (6) months. The community services contract was awarded for a total of seven (7) plus three (3) years.
An option to extend for an additional 36 months as mentioned within II.2.4. The aforementioned estimated contract value is for the five (5) + three (3) years, to make it co-terminus with the community contract which it will be varied into.
On 9.2.2018 a PIN was issued calling for providers interested in delivering integrated pain management services to contact the CCG. Following this, the CCG have engaged in discussions with the existing West Suffolk Alliance providers and interested third party providers and now awarded the contract as set out above on the basis that the listed organisations are the only providers with the requisite capacity and capability to provide the integrated pain management services and that competition from other providers is absent.
On the 29.1.2019 a Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency notice (2019/S 022-048760) was released stating the intention of the CCG to award the contract to the aforementioned providers.
NHS West Suffolk CCG (the “CCG”) has worked on the redesign and recommissioning of integrated pain management services as part of the Suffolk Health and Care Review. As part of this commissioning exercise, the CCG has undertaken a process to ascertain whether the proposed organisations within West Suffolk are the most capable providers to best secure the delivery of integrated pain management services for the current population in each area. As a result of this process and an absence of wider competition the CCG has made the decision to award the above contract.


Winner: West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Award value: 6701000
Number of bids: 1