Termination of Pregnancy and Central Booking Services

NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU)is working on behalf of NHS Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Board(ICB) to publish this Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency (VEAT) notice, for the award of a contract for the Termination of Pregnancy and Central Booking Services.

The ICB wish to directly award a contract to the incumbent provider for the following period:

Contract Start Date: 1st April 2023

Contract End Date: 31 March 2026

The maximum contract value for the 3 years is £4,182,000.

The service is for the provision of community-based Termination of Pregnancy and Central Booking Services across Cheshire and Merseyside to include medical and surgical options up to the maximum legal gestation period. The service will also include the provision of Termination of Pregnancy and Central Booking Service. The provider will offer local face to face clinics, to be delivered in Liverpool, Chester, Warrington, St Helens.

Patients may choose to access advice and treatment from other provider locations across England via the Provider's central booking tele-hub service.

Following the publication of this notice, a Contract Award Notice will also be published.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB wishes to inform the market of its action to directly award for local Termination of Pregnancy and Central Booking Services. The current contracted services expired on 31st March 2023. The ICB are awarding a contract for a period of 36 months until31st March 2026. Additional information: NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB wishes to inform the market of its action to directly award for local Termination of Pregnancy and Central Booking Services. The current contracted services expired on 31stMarch 2023. The ICB are awarding a contract for a period of 36 months until31st March 2026.

In line with the requirement to offer patient choice of provider, any approaches from potential new providers of consultant led, medical and surgical termination of pregnancy and central booking services in our region, who could meet the required specification and standards, would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The expected aims/outcomes of the service are:

• To offer and provide a high-quality termination of pregnancy service, at all stages of the patient journey, in terms of: acceptability, accessibility, effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness to need as part of an integrated high quality sexual health service.
• To provide abortions to women at the earliest gestation practicable (within the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act) through increasing provision of both early medical and local surgical abortions.
• To offer choice of early medical and surgical abortions (depending on client's gestation) to provide a local service as an option for Early Medical Abortions. The DOH rationale is that 'The earlier in pregnancy an abortion is performed the lower the risk of complications. If women can access services before they are ten weeks pregnant, they can potentially have a choice of an early medical or surgical abortion, medical abortion avoids the need for anaesthesia and surgery.
• To ensure equity of access, patient choice, improved patient experience and optimal clinical outcomes to assist in reducing the number of women requiring repeat abortions by increasing timely access to all long-term methods of contraception.
• To provide a consistent approach to service provision throughout Cheshire and Merseyside that complements other sexual health services i.e. family planning, contraception, teenage pregnancy, genitourinary medicine and health promotion services.