In August 2019, NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and Associated Commissioners awarded a contract for a Non-Emergency Patient Transportation Service (NEPTS) following a formal OJEU Open Procurement procedure.

For reference, the OJEU Document Number for the Contract Notice (published on 5th April 2019) is 2019/S 068-159843; and the OJEU Document Number for the Contract Award Notice (published on 13th September 2019) is 2019/S 177-431649.

The contract duration is five (5) years, with the option to extend for a further two (2) years, subject to agreement; the contract start date was 1st April 2020; and the total contract value was £24,942,410.00 for the initial 5-year contract period.

Further to contract commencement on 1st April 2020, the above named commissioning body has become aware of additional activity not included in the formal competitive tender exercise, therefore, a contract variation (i.e., contract modification) has been made.

It has come to the attention of the above named commissioning body that activity relating to the transportation of a cohort of End of Life patients was not included in a formal competitive tender exercise for the Herefordshire & Worcestershire NEPTS (OJEU Document Numbers 2019/S 068-159843 and 2019/S 177-431649), therefore, has not been subsequently included in the new Herefordshire & Worcestershire NEPTS contract.

Prior to publication of the Herefordshire & Worcestershire NEPTS tender documentation and NEPTS service specification in 2019, the commissioning body had conducted exercises to identify activity within the remit of the service, however, the commissioning body was not made aware that this activity was within the scope of the Herefordshire & Worcestershire NEPTS.

The commissioning body is now in the position of needing to urgently commission a High Dependency Unit (HDU) crew to cover this gap in service provision for this cohort of End of Life patients. In order to minimise risks to patient care, the commissioning body is modifying the existing NEPTS contract in alignment with specific provisions under Regulation 72 (1) (c) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015. It should be noted that the modification will not materially change the essence of the contract, and it will fall below 10% of the current total contract value.

The estimated cost of the NHS Herefordshire & Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group NEPTS contract modification is circa £875,000 over the 5-year contract duration (circa £174,720 per annum). (N.B.: the original total contract value over the 5-year contract duration is £24,942,410.) The modified activity equates to an estimated 16 additional patient journeys per week, and this figure may be adjusted as the contract is already 6-months into its term.