Optometry First Services for NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board

This is a Competitive Process Intention to Award notice for Optometry First Services for NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board made under the Healthcare Services Provider Selection Regime (PSR) 2023 Regulation 11. A Competitive Process was undertaken for the Optometry First Services in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

The aim of the community optometry first service is centred around the vision of providing timely, safe, effective, and sustainable integrated eye care services for patients at the right time, in the right location, by the right clinician with an enhanced skillset to deliver care in a community setting. The service will utilise the knowledge and skills of primary care ophthalmic practitioners to deliver a specialist primary care optometry service where service users will be managed and monitored, where appropriate within the service, in line with the scope and acceptance criteria of each pathway.

The Optometry First Service will deliver a suite of agreed pathways in primary care optometry. Service users will be referred into the service through several routes via STW Referral Management Centre (currently RAS/TRAQS) from GPs, Optometrists, Ophthalmology services, A&E and other urgent eyecare routes.

Service users can also self-present or be signposted to the CUES pathway from other routes such as pharmacy and 111. Eye Care emergencies continue to be dealt with in the A&E and Urgent Eye Clinic.

Optometry First Service Pathways include: • Cataract referral filtering and post-op assessment • Glaucoma Enhanced Case Finding (ECF), Repeat Readings (RR) and low-risk monitoring • Medical Retina referral filtering and low risk monitoring • Community minor and urgent eyecare service(CUES) • Children's integrated eye care service The lifetime value of the contract is £7,049,333. The contract commences on the 1st July 2025.

The Contract is for a period of 2 years and 9 month with the option to extend for up to a further 2-year period, ending 31st March 2030. The Optometry First service is a new service that is intended to be awarded to a new provider.

Additional information: This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) intention to award notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or the Procurement Act 2023 do not apply to this award. The day after the publication of this notice marks the start of the standstill period. This contract has not yet formally been awarded; this notice serves as an intention to award under the PSR regulations.