Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-02-11
Buyer: NHS Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 85100000: Health services | 85144100 | 85323000
Estimated value: 226000 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: This is a voluntary ex ante transparency notice and is intended to provide notice of the Contracting Authorities intention to award a 12 month contract for the provision of planned variable nursing services in Mid Essex.
This voluntary ex ante transparency notice is intended to provide notice of the Contracting Authorities (hereafter, all references to ‘the Contracting Authorities’ will mean NHS Mid Essex CCG, intention to award a 12-month (31.3.2020 to 31.3.2021) contract to the incumbent provider, Marie Curie, for the provision of a planned nursing service in Mid Essex.
Marie Curie provide a planned nursing service for end of life (EoL) patients within Mid Essex with an agreed combination of registered nurses and healthcare assistants to deliver care and support for referred patients with terminal illness, which will comprise management of pain and other symptoms and provision of emotional and practical support as set out in the care plan provided by the referrer the current contract is for the period 1.4.2017 to 31.3.2019, with a plus 1 year option, which has already been invoked extending the contract to 31.3.2020.The value of the contract award for 12 months is 226 000 GBP.
The Contracting Authorities facilitated a review of end of life pathways during 2019 in collaboration with system partners, with the aim to improve patient care and develop an integrated model of care for end of life patients. The current system is very fragmented, difficult for patients and carers to navigate, open to duplication and facing increasing demand. To enable the future development of joint working and reduce any risk of gap in provision for Mid-Essex Service Users, the Contracting Authorities have made a decision to award a further year to Marie Curie's for planned nursing service provision to align their end of life contracts to finish on the same date. The ambition of the CCG over the next 12 month period is to design a future approach to commissioning end of life services in Mid-Essex that will improve patient care, consistency and efficiencies within end of life pathways. In the interim it is essential that patients of Mid Essex still have access to the Marie Curie planned nursing services.
The contracting authorities consider that they are entitled to use the negotiated procedure without prior publication and award a lawfully permitted contract in accordance with Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) and 32(2)(c) of the PCR 15 in these circumstances on the basis that:
— Mid Essex CCG aims to provide continuity of care to service users by continuing the established service provision with Marie Curie for a further 12 months,
— within that 12-month period a new model of integrated care will be further developed for end of life pathways, enabling better quality services for patients,
— the incumbent provider is technically able to deliver the services from 1.4.2020. This short-term contract will enable an undisrupted continuity of care for vulnerable patients. There is an unacceptable risk that even if a provider were identified via an accelerated procurement procedure, there would very clearly be insufficient time to complete a robust contract mobilisation involving critical mobilisation risks including workforce. Any new service would require at least a 3-6 months to implement in a robust and safe manner, given the sensitive nature of this service, the needs of vulnerable patients and their families. As such, the CCG intends to use all reasonable endeavours to safeguard continued service delivery, minimising any inconvenience likely to be caused to patients as a result of any service disruption. The CCG must ensure continuity of a high-quality and safe provision of the end of life (EoL) service for all eligible patients by 31.3.2020. For the aforementioned reasons, the CCG deems that the time limits for the open or restricted procedures or competitive with negotiated procedure cannot be complied with. The CCG are thus mitigating this unacceptable risk of service failure by engaging with the incumbent provider and focusing on local integration and collaboration. It is deemed that only the incumbent provider is technically capable of taking on the EoL service within timescales available and for continuation of the EoL service at existing standards from 1.4.2020. The contract duration has been carefully considered allowing appropriate timescales to develop and finalise the overall strategy and governance, exploring options to enable the future recommissioning of integrated EoL services.


Winner: Marie Curie
Award value: 226000