The NHS Clinical commissioning groups of Eastern Cheshire, South Cheshire, West Cheshire, Vale Royal, Warrington and Wirral have requested provision of non-emergency patient transport services to be delivered under terms of the NHS Standard Contract and to agreed service levels.

Non-emergency patient transport services (NEPTS) comprises the movement of eligible patients whose condition is not considered an ‘emergency’ between patients’ homes or residential addresses, hospitals, community setting or other NHS funded treatment centres for people referred for consultations, treatments, procedures and hospital discharge. This encompasses a wide range of vehicle types and levels of care consistent with the patients’ medical needs.

Non-emergency patient transport services (NEPTS) comprises the movement of eligible patients whose condition is not considered an ‘emergency’ between patients’ homes or residential addresses, hospitals, community setting or other NHS funded treatment centres for people referred for consultations, treatments or procedures and hospital discharge. This encompasses a wide range of vehicle types and levels of care consistent with the patients’ medical needs.

The services sought include both the call handling and the patient transport elements and any solution proposed must be robust, accessible by a number of systems and encompass service management requirements. For example, the online and telephone booking systems must be capable of confirming a patients’ conformance with transport eligibility criteria in real time.

This contract requires a diverse fleet of vehicles resourced to accommodate patients who require:

— car vehicles.

— single man patient transport vehicles.

— 2 man crew patient transport vehicles

— wheelchair accessible vehicles.

— stretcher vehicles.

— bariatric and multi-people lift vehicles.

— appropriate real time patient services booking and management systems.

The new service will simplify and improve the efficiency of Non emergency patient transport pathways and ensure equity of service provision in line with legislation and Department of Health and NHS England regulations and guidance. The services will be flexible, available on short notice and accessed through a Centralised booking service. This may also include the provision of unplanned services on a same day or limited time basis.

The key strategic objectives of the procurement and subsequently delivered service are to:

Satisfy CCGs responsibility for the provision of suitable transport for eligible patients as per the then current NHS England Eligibility criteria.

Ensure patients equity in access to healthcare services.

Deliver measureable improvements in patient outcome and experience.

Obtain most economically advantageous bid incorporating value for money.

The contract is anticipated to be valued at between 5 000 000 GBP and 10 000 000 GBP per annum. This reflects current market value and potential changes that may be required over the life of the contract in response to either, changes in local or national policy.

For example, this could be because:-

The number of days and or times patient services are provided is modified.

Strategic transformation programmes are implemented altering the locations, methods or volume of delivered services.

Other service requirements become available during the term of the contract.

The demography within the area changes

There are changes to operational boundaries due to service reconfigurations

Changes to type of case mix of journey types

NHS Commissioning Standards and local emergency and urgent care strategies will continue to evolve over the life of the contract to improve efficiency and integration across the patient journey. Given this continual change it is anticipated that there will be service changes to ensure that the service remains compliant with NHS Commissioning Standards and local emergency and urgent care strategies including, but not limited to, the requirement for transport services to be available 7 days a week.

Bidders are therefore advised that a degree of flexibility is required over the course of the contract term and it is anticipated that certain elements of the service will need to be re-negotiated part way through the contract term, to ensure that the service remains in line with prevailing commissioning standards.