Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Kirkham House, John Comyn Drive, Perdiswell
Worcester
WR3 7NS
Contact
Lyle Lloyd, MCIPS, Senior Procurement Officer
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UKG12 - Worcestershire
Justification for not providing organisation identifier
Not on any register
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome
Buyer's address
https://herefordshireandworcestershire.icb.nhs.uk/
one.3) Communication
Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
Health
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) Market Engagement Opportunity for the future provision of Urgent Access Primary Care Services (Single Point of Access, Out of Hours, and Outbreak Management)
Reference number
UEC/2024/OOH
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 85100000 - Health services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Procurement Unit is issuing this Market Engagement Notice on behalf of NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) who is seeking initial engagement and feedback from the market to establish potential interest to deliver the future provision of Urgent Access Primary Care Services (Single Point of Access, Out of Hours, and Outbreak Management) for the patient population of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, UK.
The proposed service is for the provision of urgent face-to-face and/or virtual primary care assessment and treatment services delivered in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The delivery of the service will form part of integrated urgent care including provision of 24/7 NHS General Practice, covering 'out-of-hours' general practice, provision of 24/7 infectious disease surge and outbreak management response, and daily medical input into the local Single Point of Access.
A virtual Market Engagement event is taking place at 12.00pm to 1.30pm on Tuesday 20th May 2025 via Microsoft Teams.
The purpose of the meeting will be for the ICB and potential interested providers to discuss the proposed services and the feasibility of the scope and specification. The ICB will then take forward any feedback as appropriate to inform the final service specification that it will be seeking to procure against.
Suitably qualified and experienced providers who are potentially interested in delivering the services are requested to express an interest to attend the Market Engagement Event by 5pm on Monday 12th May 2025.
To express interest, and to register your attendance at the virtual Market Engagement Event, please register via the Atamis e-sourcing portal at the following hyperlink:
https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome
Please refer to Atamis Project Reference: C329362.
The ICB reserves the right to reject expressions of interest that do not come in within this deadline.
Please note those organisations that have expressed an interest will still be required to register for any future procurement and should not rely on their response to this Expression of Interest.
NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB is not bound to act on any information generated from the questionnaire, and participation does not automatically guarantee any standing with regards to any future Provider Selection Regime (PSR) process adopted by the ICB.
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: Yes
Maximum number of lots that may be awarded to one tenderer: 2
two.2) Description
two.2.1) Title
Herefordshire
Lot No
1
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 85100000 - Health services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKG11 - Herefordshire, County of
Main site or place of performance
The County of Herefordshire, UK.
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
Potentially interested parties are invited to respond to the questions within Atamis project C329362 to express an interest in providing the above service in Herefordshire.
Details of the service are set out in the draft Service Specification which is available to view in the Documents section of the above project.
Please be advised that the draft Service Specification may be subject to change prior to any future Provider Selection Regime process.
two.2) Description
two.2.1) Title
Worcestershire
Lot No
2
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 85100000 - Health services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKG12 - Worcestershire
Main site or place of performance
The County of Worcestershire, UK
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
Potentially interested parties are invited to respond to the questions within Atamis project C329362 to express an interest in providing the above service in Worcestershire.
Details of the service are set out in the Specification which is available to view in the Documents section of the above project.
Please be advised that the draft Service Specification may be subject to change prior to any future Provider Selection Regime process.
two.3) Estimated date of publication of contract notice
1 July 2025
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: No
Section six. Complementary information
six.3) Additional information
The ICB is considering letting contracts for the above services and the procurement is being divided into two lots:
• Lot 1 - for the population normally covered by in-hours GP Services in Herefordshire
• Lot 2 - for the population normally covered by in-hours GP Services in Worcestershire.
Interested parties will be able to submit bids for one or both lots.
If the successful bidder is the same for both lots, then the ICB would enter into a dialogue with the provider regarding the options for entering into a single contractual arrangement covering both counties.
A decision on the time period for the contract will be decided after the market engagement, but it is currently expected to be for a minimum of 3 years, with the option to extend for up to another 2 years at the discretion of the ICB. However, through the market engagement exercise, the ICB is interested in hearing interested provider views on the potential benefits they believe they could offer from entering into a longer contract period.
The ICB currently envisages the contract(s) will mobilise from the 8th July 2026 following a formal competitive process. (N.B.: all dates may be subject to change).
The ICB reserves the right to amend any proposed lotting strategy for any future procurement exercise.
The total lifetime value of the contract(s) will be determined once the final service specification has been finalised.
For further details relating to the aforementioned services, please refer to the draft Service Specification and other attachments section in the Documents (at Atamis Project Reference: C329362).
Please be advised that the Service Specification is currently in draft format and may be subject to change prior to the publication of documents for any future PSR process.
This notice has been issued subject to the PSR regulations 2023 for the Procurement of Healthcare Services, to establish market interest in the services here described.
It should be noted that this is not a procurement exercise at this stage, and participating organisations are responsible for their own costs. All details provided by the ICB are in draft format, and the ICB reserves the right to change/amend any aspect of its requirement prior to any potential future procurement exercise.
Please note the contracting party for the avoidance of doubt for any future contract(s) shall be NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB.
This is a PSR market engagement notice. Should NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB award any contract subsequent to this request, it will be subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Procurement Act 2023 do not apply to this notice.
At this stage this is an engagement exercise only. This engagement exercise will be operated via electronic means using the internet. Details will be made available via documentation and information released on the Atamis portal.
To express interest and to register your attendance at the virtual Market Engagement Event, please register via Atamis e-sourcing portal https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome.
Atamis Reference: C329362.
Should providers have any queries, or having problems using the portal, they should contact Helpdesk at:
Phone: 0800 9956035
E-mail: support-health@atamis.co.uk
Providers are requested to answer the questions within the requirement section when registering interest (via https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ref: C329362 by 5pm on Monday 12th May 2025.