North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust Out of Area Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) Placement

This Contract Award notice is placed under the Healthcare Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 Regulation 8 for Direct Award Process B, where the ICB is awarding this contract having conducted spot purchasing analysis and concluding that this is the only available option, and the ICB has a choice of providers, and is not seeking to restrict the number of providers. The service is for specialised Psychiatric care for a named patient.

Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICU) are specialist wards that provide inpatient mental health care, assessment and comprehensive treatment to individuals who are experiencing the most acutely disturbed phase of a serious mental disorder. The contract has been awarded following direct award process B at £1,035.00 per day for a nominal period of 4 weeks as the duration is unknown.

The patient would be reviewed daily Mon-Fri and would be re-patriated where clinically appropriate. Estimated total cost is £28,980.00 from 29th June 2026 to not known.

The Trust had a spot purchasing arrangement with this provider in the past, and this is a continuation of that service for a new placement, now coming directly through the Trust whereas previously it sat under the ICB. The contract is new as the Trust are placing the contract directly but the arrangements have been previously in place under spot purchasing via the ICB.

Additional information: The patient has no legal right to choose for this service. The Trust does not want to restrict the number of providers.

This is highly specialised psychiatric services with limited availability nationally. All providers were contacted to ascertain whether they could provide the required service, only this supplier responded in the required timeframe.