Provision of Patient Transport Services in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough

The ICB has re-designed the way Patient Transport Services are specified in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. They were looking for stand-alone services for specific cohorts of patients which have varying needs. The re-procurement was split into 3 lots so 3 separate contracts could have been awarded with bidders able to bid for all of the lots or any combination of lots. For the avoidance of doubt each bid was scored on their individual merit. Thus, it was possible that contracts could have been issued to a single provider, and indeed they have.

The lots are split as follows:

Lot 1 - Specialist Transport And Non-planned (STAN) - High Dependency, Bariatric, End of Life, Discharges, Ambulatory Care Pathway transport, and Interfacility transfers transport services.

Lot 2 - Planned Patients Transport Service (PPTS) - Renal Dialysis, Outpatients, and Admissions patient transport service.

Lot 3 - Booking and Eligibility Centre - a call centre function that provides telephony access to the Patient Transport service, completing Eligibility Assessments, Bookings and Customer Service to all.

The aim of the services is to deliver high quality, dignified and safe patient transport to specific cohorts of patients, ensuring all services users are assessed robustly and consistently, and that eligible patients are able to travel in a timely manner, without adverse impact on their medical condition.

The services will be person-centred, and providers will need to be committed to the 'personalisation' of the whole service(s) from the point of first contact when the booking is requested, through to pick-up, relationship of the driver with the patient (and escort if applicable), journey to the destination, supporting the patient in preparation for their transport and arrival at home or nominated place of residence or other healthcare setting.

The ICB is also seeking innovation from providers that can maximise the use of information technology and fully utilise technological solutions to deliver service efficiencies to drive quality, safety, sustainability, value for money and improved patient and service user satisfaction.