To provide theatre space with support staff and consumables to deliver podiatry surgery operations for Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust - Request for Information

Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (“the Authority”) is seeking to procure a service for an initial two-year term, with options to extend, for the provision of theatre facilities, support staff, and consumables required to deliver podiatry surgery across Brent and Inner London. The Barnet Podiatric Surgery Service provides medical and surgical management of foot pathology within an outpatient and theatre setting.

The service is led by a part-time Consultant Podiatric Surgeon and is supported by an Extended Scope Podiatrist. The service runs one and half days of outpatient clinics from MSK Outpatient, Edgware Community Hospital, and has one half day theatre list per week at Chase Lodge Hospital.

The service also provides a theatre list is for day cases only, carried out under local anaesthetic. In rare occasions, the service provides podiatric surgery under general anaesthetic.

General anaesthetic to be agreed on an adhoc basis. The majority of surgical procedures undertaken are performed under local anaesthetic.

The service is commissioned to treat patients who are registered in with a Barnet GP and receives referrals for forefoot conditions from GPs and Podiatrists. The aim is to continue to run 47 full day local anaesthetic theatre lists a year with 6-8 patients per list.

Surgical procedures are conducted in a dedicated day surgery unit. Patients are pre-assessed, then admitted to, treated in, and discharged from the unit.

All members of staff involved in patient care are experienced and skilled in day case care. Operating sessions 8.00 – 17.30 (4 hours).

It is assumed that the services will close at weekends, bank holidays and the Christmas and New Year period. Access is required for the podiatric surgery team from 07.30am on the day of surgery to start anaesthetising patients at 08.30am.

Patients will be admitted to the ward and on beds by 08.30am to enable anaesthesia prior to surgery to start. Inner London (NWL ICB) (West London, Central London, Hammersmith and Fulham)

The Inner London Podiatric Surgery Service provides medical and surgical management of foot pathology within an outpatient and theatre setting. The service is led by a full and part-time Consultant Podiatric Surgeon and is supported by a Biomechanical/Extended Scope Podiatrist.

The service runs four days per week of outpatient clinics (face to face and remote) from the Fracture Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital. There are four day case theatre sessions per month (eight programmed activities) at The Riverside Clinic in Brentford (Cora Health).

There are three local anesthetic all day lists and one general anesthetic all day list. The service is commissioned to treat patients who are registered with a GP within the NWL ICB.

The podiatric team will assess patient suitability for surgery with the general anaesthetic patients being assessed by the hospital hosting the surgery sessions. Access is required for the podiatric surgery team from 07.30am on the day of surgery to start anaesthetising patients at 08.00am.

Patients will be admitted to the ward and on beds by 07.45am to enable anaesthesia prior to surgery to start (local anaesthetic list). SCOPE

The Authority is exploring the opportunity to re-procure this service for a 2-year period, with extension options. We are exploring different sourcing options and would very much appreciate the views and feedback from possible providers of the services.

The options are: Both services are delivered by a single provider in 2 different locations (Barnet and Inner London) or at a single location that can be in either of the 2 locations (Barnet and Inner London).

We would also consider locations in other areas of London especially if all services can be provided from a single site. A Single provider for Barnet and a single provider for Inner London

The Authority is therefore undertaking a market engagement exercise via a Request for Information questionnaire (RFI). This is a process designed to help the Authority form a view of the best way to commission the service; it is not the beginning of a tender exercise.

A further tender advertisement will be issued at the appropriate time where required. The Authority reserves the right to amend or change all and any aspects discussed in this exercise if a decision to move to formal procurement is made.

This early engagement exercise does not guarantee the tendering of any services taking place. Your feedback at this point will not have a bearing on any future tender submissions you may wish to offer.

You will not be disadvantaged if you choose not to respond to the RFI. It will be incredibly helpful to understand your views and insights at this early stage, so you are encouraged to respond as fully as you can as any feedback could inform the specification and any future tendering opportunity.

Thank you for your time and participation. Additional information: To access the documents and participate, please register and apply via Atamis e-sourcing portal:

https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome North West London Procurement Services (NWLPS) is a Collaborative Procurement Organisation.

The Authority have instructed NWLPS to act as their procurement representative, therefore, any communications during this market engagement stage is on behalf of the Authority. NWLPS is an agent of the Authority, acting on their behalf solely to carry out the market engagement. All decisions will be made by the Authority.