The requirement is for a consultant led community dermatology service (excluding 2WW) that will be delivered closer to the patient’s home, with appropriate access to secondary care, clinical support and investigations. Its aim is to ensure the future provision of high quality, effective care that is patient focused and achieved through collaborative and multi-disciplinary working across Bassetlaw.

The Consultant led Community Dermatology Service will play a key role in supporting Bassetlaw CCG in its strategy to optimise the value of referrals and improve patient experience and outcomes. The Service will manage a broad range of dermatological conditions and support the development of sustainable care pathways, which are cost-effective, responsive to local need, and agreed with key partners. The Community Service will also play a pivotal role in strengthening the dermatology offering in Bassetlaw, by providing a link between primary and secondary care, building capacity and expertise within the community and diverting less complex activity away from the acute trusts, thereby improving access to secondary care for those patients requiring secondary care treatment.

The Provider will deliver a comprehensive integrated service model which is multi-disciplinary, high quality and consultant-led. The Community Dermatology Service will provide timely assessment, diagnosis and treatment of the full range of dermatological diseases. The Provider will ensure services are safe, sustainable and high quality, delivered from a range of community based locations across the CCG. The Provider will form strong working relationships across primary, community and secondary care services (including an existing teledermatology service) to ensure the patient pathway is seamless and meets the needs of our patients.

The objectives of the service are:

— To act as a single point of access for patients with a dermatology condition excluding 2WW,

— To deliver a service which is equitable, effective, efficient and affordable, which meets the needs of the local health community across Bassetlaw,

— To implement innovative treatments/ concepts, for example virtual clinics and teledermatology, deemed to be suitable to provide in a Community setting. (British Association of Dermatologists, 2013),

— To ensure patients receive appropriate triage, assessment, diagnostics and treatment in a timely manner and facilitate the appropriate use of prescribed medication,

— To ensure an appropriate workforce skill-mix, competency and qualification, to deliver a high quality service,

— To reduce the need for patients to attend secondary care, thus promoting care closer to home and right care, right place, right time,

— To implement choice at the point of (onward) referral,

— To educate patients on their condition and empower patients to self-manage where appropriate,

— To increase knowledge/promote the service across primary/community services to enable referral of patients to the service, and other support services as appropriate,

— To adopt a multidisciplinary approach to ensure an holistic approach is undertaken when developing treatment plans.

The Contract will be for a term of 3 years with the opportunity to extend for 2 years subject to mutual agreement between the successful Bidder and the Authority. The maximum term of Contract is consequently 5 years.

The contract value for a 3 year period is 2 016 million GBP.